Toxic 30
by Mackiecam
Summary: The body count is rising as a new branch of the mob tries to take over Trenton. Vito is on the warpath. Morelli is on the job, and he needs Stephanie's help in identifying the people involved. The question is: will they identify the people responsible before Stephanie joins the ranks of the dead? This story is a babe and will be published a minimum of three times per week.
1. Chapter 1

_The following story is a work of fiction_ _that features characters developed by Janet Evanovich. No money has been earned through writing this story. Any similarities to real events or persons are entirely coincidental. _

_Toxic 30, although a stand-alone, builds upon the previous books in my series. The first one is a bit cupcake-y, but the rest are pure babes and develop the relationships between the characters. For maximum enjoyment, I suggest that you read them in the following order:_

_22 Caliber_

_Trigger Happy 23 _

_Morelli's Argument 23.5_

_Ranger 23.75_

_Threatening 24_

_Fixation 25_

_Security 26_

_Sneaky 27_

_Date Night at the Movies 27.1_

_Meeting Maria 27.2_

_The Intervention 27.3_

_Envious 28_

_Dickie's Demise 28.1_

_Mob Matters 28.2_

_Altercation at Giovichinni's 28.3_

_Numbskull 29_

_In recognition of the fact that I'm a binge reader and don't personally like to wait for updates, I will post at a minimum on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule (or a Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday schedule, depending upon where you live in the world), barring unseen life events. However, in the past I have periodically posted extra chapters to celebrate achieving some personal milestone – or just because I like the way the sun is shining that day – so you might want to watch for those. Since I do that relatively frequently, if you are enjoying the story you might want to follow it rather than continually check back._

_Reviews, as always, are greatly appreciated. I have a few people who regularly review for me, and I'd like to thank you for that. Your reviews have given me confidence to write another story. In appreciation for people taking the time to leave a review, for every 25 reviews I post an extra chapter. Note that this means that sometimes I post twice in a day, and I apologize if that is too frequent for you. I appreciate all reviews and try to respond to each and every one. Please note that I cannot respond to reviews that have been posted by guests. _

_Thank you for reading my story. I hope you enjoy it!_

_~ Sarah ~_

**Chapter One**

I ran another name through the search engines and sighed. Ranger was out training PMC staff and I missed him immensely. He wasn't due home for another three days and I could hardly wait.

My name is Stephanie Plum, and I'm the researcher for Rangeman, Ranger's ultra-elite security company. Ricardo Carlos Manoso, known by his staff and good friends as Ranger, was my boyfriend. He was the yin to my yang. If we were drinks, I'd be a vanilla milkshake. There would be nothing complicated about me. Of Hungarian and Italian descent, I looked more Hungarian than Italian. I had inherited the shoulder-length brown curly hair and blue eyes and cute nose from my grandmother on my mother's side, and had inherited nothing other than my name and a number of rude hand gestures from my father's. Ranger would be a caramel macchiato, deep, dark and full-bodied. Ranger was Cuban-American with the perma-tan and warm brown eyes and hair to prove it. He had the sort of physique that made women drool as he passed by, both to my joy since I was one of the women who drooled and to my dismay since I wanted to claw out the eyes of all those other women. He was known as Mr. Mysterio amongst my friends, and I could see why. He played his cards close to his chest.

I had been friends with him for years, but although we had a close emotional connection that, when the stars aligned, had delved into a physical connection, we hadn't formally dated one another. Part of that reason was because I had been in an on-again, off-again relationship with Joe Morelli, Trenton's finest detective in the Crimes Against Persons division. About five months ago I had finally broken it off with Joe, this time permanently. The other reason we hadn't dated was because Ranger didn't want to commit to anyone. He had been married in a past life for about ten minutes, a union that had resulted in his thirteen year-old daughter Julie. I had always assumed that his wish to avoid commitment was based on his desire to not repeat the experience of holy matrimony.

I was wrong. His desire to avoid commitment was to protect his loved ones. Ranger, in addition to owning Rangeman, was a trainer and occasional team lead on special missions for the covert PMC – Private Military Contractors – and with PMC's mandate of going into other countries on behalf of the CIA, DEA, FBI and other alphabet agencies to provide privately contracted military support, he had gotten in the bad books with a lot of scary people. Ranger had kept himself separate from his family and friends so that involvement didn't spill over onto them.

Ranger's role in PMC was a closely guarded secret, and only two people outside PMC knew of his involvement. One was his best friend, Tank, who was second-in-command at Rangeman and had backed up Ranger both professionally and personally since Ranger had left the army, and the other was me. Again, that was for the protection of those people who loved him.

So, in the world of secrets that Ranger inhabited, he entrusted me with the knowledge of his covert work with PMC. He told me for a reason. While he knew it would be safer for me to not be involved with him, he said he was too selfish not to want to explore the potential of a relationship with me.

I was happy that he was being selfish. I'd done a lot of soul-searching when I broke up with Morelli. After telling me of his work with PMC, Ranger had left the decision as to whether we'd get together up to me. After all, because of his PMC connection, there were a number of security considerations that I'd have to adopt to keep myself safe. One of those was to wear a watch that had a tracking device in it. It made sense. I had hated it at first, but after a bit of time to get used to the concept I liked being monitored like that. While that was for Ranger's peace of mind, I had been kidnapped enough in the past that it worked for my peace of mind as well. As Ranger said, it wasn't just for me. He had a tracker in his watch as well. But unlike Ranger, I'd had to use mine.

Another concession to keeping me safe was to drive one of the Rangeman cars so that I looked like the other cars on the road. Any car that I could afford was typically rusty and dented, and in the land of leased and new vehicles, my cars stuck out like a sore thumb.

Like my cars, I had to conduct my life in a way where I blended in with those around me. So, no identifying characteristics like tattoos, piercings or wildly-unique hair colors. Since I was a fairly traditional woman whose style tended towards the classic, this wasn't a problem for me.

While all those safety measures were fairly innocuous on their own, they all added up to a scary package that needed to be considered carefully, but after much deliberation I decided that I wanted to pursue a relationship with Ranger. So we started to date. Then we started to spend nights together regularly. He invited me to meet his family. And one and a half weeks ago I moved into Ranger's apartment.

While Ranger had his reasons for avoiding commitment, so did I. Mine weren't as noble as being part of a covert group which worked to right the wrongs in this world. Mine were because I also had been married, but for me I'd been married for three months to Dickie Orr, a philandering jackass of a man who had emotionally and physically abused me. I had learned, through him, that men changed from being charismatic and loving before being married to complete assholes afterwards. Over time, Ranger's steady support and unconditional love had chipped away the fear that he'd change like Dickie had. Ranger was such a protective person that I couldn't imagine him doing anything willingly to hurt me, and he was so thoughtful, caring and honorable that I couldn't imagine him doing anything unwillingly either. In short, I trusted him.

Ranger was more than just my boyfriend and cohabitation partner. He was also my part-time boss. Housed in a non-descript seven-story brick building in the heart of Trenton with only a small brass plaque identifying its occupant, Rangeman offered a variety of services, from contracted security staff to bodyguarding to skip tracing to security system installation and monitoring. They specialized in corporate accounts but had been known to delve into the installation and monitoring of wealthy private clients. They were proof that you got what you paid for – their services weren't cheap, but they were known as the best of the best security experts around. Their head office was in Trenton, but they also had a satellite office in Miami.

When a corporate client was signed up, a standard procedure would follow. The company itself would have been investigated prior to Rangeman signing the contract. Rangeman wouldn't take on any client that was unethical. As Ranger said, it just wasn't worth it. We ran a clean organization and we wanted our clients to be clean as well. As the researcher, I would do that investigative work. When Ranger had approved the client, went over their security needs, made recommendations and signed the contracts, Ranger would install any security changes and I would research each person in the company to look for security leaks. On an ongoing basis, my role would be one where I was responsible for investigating potential employees for our clients, those employees who had passed the first interview and who the company was interested in having back for a second one. Other people in Operations looked after the other components of their security program.

The company I was currently researching was Bordin, a manufacturing company that made whatchamacallits for computers. I didn't really care what they did and just needed to know that they made computer parts. We had just signed them on as a contract, so I had the unenviable job of researching all two hundred and thirteen employees. I had one hundred and four left to go.

I would have completed more if it wasn't for the fact that working at Rangeman wasn't my only job. I also worked for Vincent Plum Bail Bonds as a fugitive apprehension agent or, most commonly known as, a bounty hunter. When people were arrested, most of the time they were awarded bail. When one posted bail, they gave a sum of money to the courts and, in return, were allowed to spend their time outside jail while they waited for their hearing date. When the accused showed up at their hearing, the bail was returned to them.

However, the accused frequently didn't have the money to post bail. That's where a bail bonds company came in. For fifteen percent of the price of the bond and the donation of some collateral, the bonds office ponied up the money to let the accused roam free. When the accused showed up for their court date, they got the collateral back. The bonds office, however, kept the fifteen percent.

Sometimes the accused didn't show up for court though, and that created a problem for the bail bondsman. Without that bail returned from the courts, the bondsman couldn't lend the money to another felon and therefore couldn't earn another fifteen percent. That was where I came in. When the accused missed their court date, I was sent to retrieve them and bring them back into the courts again. For this, I got two-thirds of that fifteen percent. Good deal for me, until you realized that there was no base pay.

For years, I kept myself afloat by just doing skip tracing. Some months were lean. Hell, what am I saying? Most months were lean. But now that I had started working at Rangeman I had the stability of the research job while still having the variety and excitement of the bounty hunter job. I had been unsure about it at first – after all, research put my feet to sleep – but the two jobs were working for me. For the first time ever I was looking at the potential of putting some money aside for the future, and didn't that make me feel good about myself?

When I did skip tracing, I often used the file clerk from the bail bonds office as my backup. Lula was a former 'ho who'd had her share of experiences in the court system. If I was a vanilla milkshake and Ranger was caramel macchiato, Lula was an extra-large hot chocolate with whipped cream and peppermint sprinkles. She was particularly useless as a bounty hunter and was even worse as a file clerk. Her only noticeable skill was to tackle felons in an attempt to capture them. It sometimes even worked. Together, we had been called the Lucy and Ethyl team of bounty hunters, but even though we were bumblers, we did eventually, usually, get the job done. And when we failed in our mission despite our best efforts, we always had the choice to hand the file over to Rangeman. While there were a few times that I'd had to rely on them, it wasn't something I willingly chose to do, partly because by doing so I would lose sixty percent of my capture fee, but also partly because it seemed like cheating to me.

Ranger had been my mentor in the business. I had been an out-of-work lingerie buyer who had blackmailed my way into the job as a bounty hunter. My boss, Vincent Plum, had a perverted sex life with partners ranging from a variety of creatures with two or four legs, and as his cousin not only did I know that, but I also knew his wife was ignorant of the fact. So I blackmailed my way into the position, an action that Vinnie luckily didn't hold against me. It would have made family reunions difficult.

Vinnie had given me a few files and left me to it. I don't know who was more surprised when I captured the felons, Vinnie or me. Since I'd had some success – and I still had that very juicy dirt on my cousin – Vinnie let me continue in the role. The job suited me. I didn't have to wear nylons or heels to the office, I didn't have to work standard nine-to-five hours and, best of all, it allowed me regular runs to the Tasty Pastry for coffee and doughnuts.

Both my research job and my skip tracing job used the same skills – primarily a tendency to try to prove my convictions right. That characteristic had gotten me into trouble in the past. It was what convinced me to prove that I could be Wonder Woman to all the neighborhood kids by jumping off the roof of the house while wearing a pillowcase tied around my neck like a cape. (I wasn't and landed in a pile of doggie doo-doo.) It was what convinced me that I could become a baton twirler in high school, despite having no sense of either rhythm or coordination. (I lost control of the baton and it flew into the tuba.) It was what convinced me that I could be the next genius that graduated college. (I graduated in the ninety-eighth percentile.) I had never thought of that sort of stubbornness as a good quality, but it was my most-used personal characteristic in my professional life. Ranger said that it was one of the things he admired most about me. Go figure. Most people say it was the personal trait they liked the least.

I finished the report. Ranger and I had changed the way we were doing reporting. Previously, we had printed off reams of paper and I had gone through the paper with a fine-toothed comb and my trusty highlighter. That had worked for the longest time, but Ranger and I had been unhappy with the number of trees we were killing with each corporate overview. Each employee would go through a minimum of four searches, which resulted in a minimum of four pieces of paper – and more frequently resulted in an average of twelve. The most extensive search that I had completed was fifty-six pages long. Most of the information presented in the searches was unimportant, but I had to sift through the different search results to be able to highlight any concerns, and I had to produce a summary report that condensed those search results into an easy-to-follow document. So if there was an average of twelve sheets per employee, the Bordin files would be over four reams of paper. That was a lot of paper talking about very little that was interesting.

So Ranger and I developed a template to use for each of the employee reports. Each employee had their own electronic file under the company file, and in each employee file was a downloaded copy of each of the search engine results as well as a report that summarized all the data. This meant that I had at least four searches to do for each employee, or almost nine hundred for the company. Just shoot me now.

The job as researcher was better than it used to be. When I first started, I would use the search engines to print off the search results. There was no analysis involved in the job. But I kept falling asleep – literally – on the job, so Ranger decided to make the job more interesting to me. He said that I had good instincts, so he encouraged me to go through the reports to separate the chaff from the wheat. Ranger was happy because he said I was catching more things than he would have caught if he had to read all of the supporting documentation himself, and I was happy because it kept it more interesting for me.

I found, with doing the analysis, that my search was more focused and more detailed. I often could identify issues on my first run-through of the search engines and, based on that information, could investigate more closely the issues that I pinpointed. This involved some non-search engine investigation – some of which was legal. Ranger had set me up with his best hacker, and Leonardo had taught me a lot. I had worked with him for three days, and Leo told me that I took to information gathering like a duck took to water. I found this type of information gathering fun and, for those accounts that required getting past firewalls – something I didn't have the computer know-how to do – I could still use Leo's services to help me. In short, investigating people suited my nosy tendencies and appeased my curiosity.

This information helped Ranger when he set up the corporate accounts. It was rare that a corporate account didn't have any issues to flag. In fact, in the six months that I had been doing the analysis, there hadn't been a corporate account yet that I hadn't found at least one concern on.

In this account, I had investigated just over half of the employees and I had identified three that were questionable. Nothing too serious. One had a sealed juvie record. One was caught for shoplifting when she was nineteen. And the third, which was more concerning, was someone who had been arrested for selling stolen parts. Why it was an especial concern was because he seemed to specialize in stolen computer parts. I didn't know if he was interested in computer whatchamacallits, but I personally didn't think the company really wanted to find that out.

Normally, I didn't mind doing research. However, I didn't like setting up new companies. Ranger never put pressure on me to get the research done, but I expected me to do it all yesterday. However, with a large file like Bordin's, the research took time. At half an hour, on average, per employee, there were roughly one hundred hours of research to do. I'd been working on the file for the last week and a half and still had about fifty hours left to complete.

I'd been working more hours with Ranger gone. There just seemed to be little point in going back to the apartment when he wasn't there. Ranger had left Sunday morning. I had cleaned my hamster's cage that afternoon and then, with all my chores completed, I came down to my office and tried to knock off some of the searches.

Ranger's apartment was on the top floor of the Rangeman building. This drastically cut down the time to commute in the morning, and it let me work late in the evening. The apartment was maintained by Ranger's housekeeper, Ella. She was a whiz in the kitchen and, unlike me, was a natural homemaker. Ranger and I both were grateful that she was in our lives.

I stretched and rubbed my eyes, then shut down the computer and closed up my office for the night. As I walked to the elevator, I approached Tank's office. His door was open and I could hear Morelli talking to him, and he was saying something about one of our search engines, In-Spect. It was our most comprehensive and invasive search engine that we had, the most comprehensive and invasive search engine that existed. It had been designed by Leo and was one of the reasons Rangeman was known as the place to go for security needs. We used all the standard ones that the police used as well, the DMV database and the Border Security database and the IAFIS database and the databases used by the health insurance companies and so on. But In-Spect could do everything that the standard searches could do and more. Much more. I had become somewhat of an expert in using it in the last six months.

Since In-Spect was an in-house designed program, it meant that we often had more information than the police. In the spirit of cooperation, Rangeman had periodically shared this information with the TPD on specific cases.

I popped my head into Tank's office. "I heard the words 'In-Spect' which means you are talking about my area of specialty. What do you need done, Joe?"

Joe looked at me with an 'oh, shit' expression on his face, then looked at Tank. He looked back at me and said, "I didn't know that you'd still be in the office."

"I was just trying to get caught up on my searches", I said. "We had a big corporate account come in last week, and I'm doing my part of the set up."

"Stephanie is our most accomplished researcher. If she can't find out anything", said Tank, "then it isn't there to find out. She has saved our bacon several times."

"Do you have something you want me to research?" I looked at Tank, and he looked at Joe.

"No. I want you far, far away from this", said Morelli.

"Joe", I said in my best conciliatory fashion, "there is no risk to me for just doing research. In-Spect is invasive, but there are no traces that are left of my search. There is no way that the person I am researching would know that I was looking for them."

"The people Rangeman are researching for me are people who have a tendency to make their enemies disappear. I have already run their names through the police databases, and they are clean. I asked Ranger to run them through your database, but he said that he did the best that he could."

"I can do better than Ranger. He is good on doing research, but that's my job. I do it all the time, whereas he has to feel his way through it."

"That's what I was telling Morelli", said Tank. Joe glared at Tank, and Tank smiled. "She really is the best researcher that we've ever had."

"Aw, thanks, Tank. You say the nicest things", I said with a grin.

Joe looked at me, his head cocked to the side as he considered me. He sighed, and I smiled. I knew I had won. "Okay", he said. "I've been working with Terry Gilman on a case." My eyes got squinty, and Joe smiled. He knew how jealous I got of Terry and, even though Joe and I weren't dating anymore, I still was jealous of Terry. She was perfect for Joe and I had always known that. She was beautiful and intelligent and athletic and nice. She was the head cheerleader, the top of the honor roll, the homecoming queen, the one voted most popular in the school. Compared to her, I felt inferior and worthless.

The one real problem, the only real problem with Terry, was that she was a member of the mob. Her uncle, Vito Grizoli, was well-connected within the local branch of the Mafia and Terry had been working for her uncle for years. She had, at times, worked with Joe when there were issues to iron out between the mob and the police. I knew that she wanted to make that collaboration more formal.

I was happy that Morelli was starting to date again, and I was even happier that it wasn't Terry that he was seeing. He had told me a week ago that he had started seeing a woman named Becky. I didn't know her, but I looked forward to meeting her. I hoped to set up a dinner between Becky, Joe, Ranger and myself in the near future. It would be one of the weirdest double dates that I had ever gone on, but I wanted to make sure that she was good enough for Joe. I might not be going out with him any longer, but I still cared deeply about him. He still was one of my closest friends.

"What did Terry have to say?" I said. I was proud for how unaffected my voice was. Inside, I was screaming and swearing.

"There are two branches of the Mafia that are warring in Trenton right now. The old branch is headed by Vito. They are the Mafia, but they have lost a lot of their teeth in recent years. They spend more time talking about their glory days than they do raising a ruckus. The old branch and the police have declared a truce and we are good at working with each other, or we are as much as possible considering they are the mob. A new branch is now trying to take over. They are infiltrating the area and, according to Terry, are picking off the members of the old mob, one at a time. But although we know that, we don't have any proof."

"Are there any particular people that you have identified as potential members of this new group?"

"Terry has identified a couple but we don't have the kingpin. The two she has identified she thinks are the enforcers for the mob and might be near or at the top of the food chain. Ranger was looking into them for me. He worked on it for a while, but he said that you could find out more than he could."

"Who are they?"

"Lorenzo and Luigi Vistonni. They own a waste management company called Garbrec that offers both garbage and recycling services. They also own a paper plant and, interestingly, a bagel-making facility. However, Ranger couldn't find a single landfill weigh scale ticket for their waste management services above and beyond what would normally be used in their offices, which is one problem with the company. The other potential difficulty is that Ranger found receipts for large quantities of lye. The sodium hydroxide could be used to dissolve road kill for their waste management business, but they are buying it in tanker sizes, which is far more than is needed for the destruction of road kill. It could, I guess, be used in the production of their paper. I don't know that much about their processes, but what I do know is that caustic soda, or sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, can be used to dissolve bodies."

"The members of the mob that are disappearing…have they been found at all? Or could they have been disintegrated?" I said. I shuddered. Being dissolved would be a difficult way to go, and I immediately thought about my grandmother. She had an unholy fascination with dead bodies and frequently went to the funeral home to get her fix. If the deceased had chosen to have a closed casket at their funeral, she would often pry the lid open to see the body. The local funeral home had taken to nailing the caskets shut in an effort to thwart her. She had responded to this practice by carrying a pry bar in her purse when she went to viewings. She would be devastated to know that the bodies had been dissolved into a slurry.

I started to think about the pink slime that they put into meat to make it look appetizing at the grocery store. I wondered if that would be what a dissolved body was like. Then I decided that I'd better not think about that any longer, or I would never eat meat again. It was bad enough thinking that Frederico could have been dissolved into the caustic soda used to make paper products. After all, what do you say? I read Fred this morning? I shuddered again.

"They haven't been found, so that could mean that they had been treated to a lye bath. We don't know a lot at the moment. What we do know, however, is that lye had been found in a river close to the waste management facility. The Water and Wastewater branch of the municipality discovered it and reported it. Unfortunately, the newspapers picked it up before the EPA could discover the source. When it was reported in the paper, the illegal dumping of the lye stopped. There is no way of tracing the pollution back to the source now."

"So you need the company, and in particular Luigi and Lorenzo, investigated."

"Yes. If you do the work, I want you to keep this very quiet. I don't want there to be any link between the cases and you, cupcake. I couldn't cope if you became a slurry."

"Neither could my grandmother", I said. "Instead of a casket I'd have to be presented at the viewings in a barrel. Knowing my grandmother, she'd purposely tip the barrel over to see what color the slurry would be."


	2. Chapter 2

I walked into Ranger's apartment and listened to the sound of Rex running on his hamster wheel. I didn't know what Rex liked playing on more – his wheel or the tubes that Ranger bought for him to crawl through. He was far more active than he'd been previously, and I had to surmise that he had been bored before. It was hard to imagine that a hamster was bored, but he seemed to greatly enjoy his new activity. Prior to having the tubes to crawl through, he had spent his time either running on his wheel or hiding in his soup-can hidey hole. Of course, that was where he hid his treats and, if I was him, I'd want to spend time with my treasure trove as well.

It was close to midnight and I knew that I had a busy day planned for the next day. Lula and I had planned to go skip chasing in the morning, and assuming that all went well I would research Morelli's names in the afternoon. I had arranged for Morelli to send me everything he had on Luigi and Lorenzo first thing so that it was there for me to investigate in the afternoon.

I washed my face and brushed my teeth, dressed in one of Ranger's shirts, and fell into bed. I had found that the secret to surviving somewhat comfortably through one of Ranger's absences was to work until I was too tired to do anything other than to sleep. It stopped me from missing him so much. I gathered his pillow into my arms and sniffed the comforting scent of Bulgari Green, and fell asleep minutes later. I slept straight through until the morning. The alarm woke me at eight. That would get me to the bonds office by nine, but knowing Lula's propensity to be a half an hour late for everything, I knew I could have another half hour of sleep before I had to get up. I reset my alarm and rolled over. What seemed like seconds later, my alarm went off again and I hauled myself out of bed and into the shower.

As I stood under the spray and let the hot water perform its miracle and wake me up, I thought some more about Luigi and Lorenzo. My interest was stirring and I felt that familiar excitement associated with sinking my teeth into a particularly interesting research assignment. I didn't mind research per se, but it would be nice to have a change from doing Bordin's research. I was going brain-dead after looking into so many people who had done nothing wrong in their lives other than a few speeding tickets and the failure to pay their bills.

I hustled out of the shower, toweled off, put on some moisturizer, and blasted my hair dry. Since my hair wasn't cooperating and it definitely wasn't a good hair day, I pulled it back into a ponytail. I hurriedly slathered on some lip gloss and gunked my eyes up with mascara, and pulled on some clothes. By sleeping in that extra half hour, it ensured that I had to hurry to the bonds office. I raced down to the break room and selected some breakfast from the selection that Ella had put out. Not having much time, I selected a yogurt parfait and a fruit salad and a muffin. I thought that I could eat the muffin on route to work. I did, however, sit down in the break room to eat the fruit salad and the yogurt parfait.

Miguel walked into the break room as I was finishing my yogurt. "How is the research desk going?" he asked.

"It's busy. We have signed on a new account, and there is a lot of setup associated with it."

Miguel smiled. "It's a good thing that Ranger doubled up his monitoring stations", he said. Up until four months ago, there had been only two stations monitoring the entire Rangeman network. The people monitoring the stations, however, were struggling to keep up and the service quality was deteriorating. So, four months ago Ranger reconfigured the work spaces and added two more monitoring stations. I was glad. My desk was formerly in the monitoring room, and that room was dark and quiet to accommodate the needs of the monitoring staff. By reconfiguring the space, Ranger moved me into my own office. It was a small office, but it was well lit and I could play music with my door closed, both features that helped to ensure that I wouldn't fall asleep at my desk any longer. In fact, I think I had only fallen asleep three times since I moved four months before. That sounds bad until you realize that falling asleep when my desk was in the control room was a weekly – if not daily – occurrence.

"Yes. He's been signing on clients almost faster than I can research them. When he last hired staff, he found twice the number of good applicants that he needed, and he's been especially glad that he hired them even though he didn't have a need for them at that particular moment. He has since needed them, and he's thinking of hiring another two Operations staff to help out as well. I remember when Rangeman was only Ranger and Tank. Now over a hundred and fifty employees, including security guards that we provide to clients, are on staff. We are growing in leaps and bounds."

"The rate we're growing, Ranger will soon have to buy another building for the Sales and Support departments, and keep this building just for the Operation staff. If we did that, there would be another floor opened up and, as far as I can tell, we could use the space."

"We are starting to burst at the seams, aren't we?"

"I heard that the property next to us, that empty plot of land, will soon be listed."

"I'll mention it to Ranger." Miguel smiled at me as I finished my yogurt and licked the spoon, before starting with the fruit, and as he left the break room I finished my fruit. I picked up my muffin and a couple of napkins, slid my purse strap over my shoulder, and took the stairs down to the parking garage.

I walked out of the stairwell and circled my car once out of habit before getting in. When I was living in my apartment, that practice was necessary. Many times when I came out it was to find that my car had been tampered with in some way – either creepy notes or flowers had been left on the dash, or the tires had been knifed, or the body had been desecrated, or whatever. In fact, I didn't think that there was one way possible that a car could be tampered with that hadn't been done on my car at least once. Felons liked to hurt my car for some reason. I didn't understand it. Of course, I knew they weren't helping themselves out at all by causing me a problem.

The car was threat-free as it always was after being parked in the Rangeman parking garage, so I drove to the bonds office. My old apartment was located ten minutes away from everything important – my parents', the bonds office, the police station and Rangeman. Rangeman, however, was located quite a bit closer to the bonds office and the police station, and a bit farther away from my parents'. Located in the heart of Trenton, it was on a quiet side street that didn't see a lot of traffic. It was the perfect location for the building.

The proximity of Rangeman to the bonds office meant that I was there within five minutes and, despite my later start to the day, Lula was not yet there. Connie was, however. Connie Rosolli was the office manager. While I hadn't inherited any Italian genes from my father, Connie had inherited the Italian genes from hers. She looked like Betty Boop on steroids, with teased-out brown hair, a mustache and a curvaceous figure. Her family was connected to the mob and, because of that, she brought in a significant portion of the bonds office's business. She was kind but vengeful, she didn't take any crap, and she was a better shot than I could ever hope to be. She was a good person to have protecting your back, and she'd been protecting mine since I had first blackmailed myself into a job with Vinnie. "How are you?" I said.

"Good", said Connie. Although she said that she was good, however, she looked worried.

"What's wrong?"

"Harry the Hammer has gone missing", she said.

I paused. Harry the Hammer was the owner of the bonds office and was Vinnie's father-in-law. He had been a former enforcer for the mob – the old branch of the mob – and didn't earn his name by his carpentry skills. He was still a member of the mob, as far as I could tell, even though he wasn't practicing his enforcement skills any longer. At least, I didn't think he was practicing his skills any longer. In actuality, I didn't really want to know whether he was or wasn't.

Connie had told me that Harry was actually a kind and quiet man. She told me of times that he had given her horsey rides and piggyback rides when she was a kid. Personally, I had trouble thinking of him in those terms. Instead, I thought of him more as the boogieman and tried to stay far, far away from him.

"Where has he gone?" said Lula as she came into the office and heard Connie's comments.

"If we knew that, he wouldn't have disappeared", said Connie. I could tell how worried she was by the bite in her voice.

"That makes sense", said Lula. She poured herself a coffee, added a generous helping of cream, and plopped herself down on the sofa. The couch was a reject from Vinnie's house from the last time Lucille had been redecorating. It was only slightly broken down and was quite comfortable to sit on, but because of the broken springs was a bitch to get out of again. I tried to avoid sitting on it because of that, but Lula didn't seem to mind it the same. She sat on that couch – and often napped on that couch – for hours. Lula took a sip of her coffee and closed her eyes in bliss.

"When did Harry disappear?" I asked.

"Two days ago", said Connie.

"Has the disappearance been reported to the police?"

"Not yet. His wife keeps saying that he could have just run off with one of his honeys. I don't know if that is it though. He's the eighth disappearance of mob members in the last month. To me, it seems like something is going wrong."

"That is worrisome", I said. "Has your family been okay?"

"So far, so good, but it is only a matter of time. Several families have been affected and, even though there hasn't been anyone from my immediate family snatched, the impacts are still affecting my family. People are running scared."

"Do you want me to put a bug in Joe's ear?"

Connie nodded. "Could you tell him that it's an unofficial passing of information? I don't know if Vito would want the mob's business blabbed to the police. I'm sure he'd rather take care of matters himself. Whoever is snatching members is declaring war on the family. I wouldn't want to be in their shoes when Vito finds out who is responsible."

"I guess. I just think that it makes sense getting the police to look into it."

"Obviously, I think it makes sense as well. Just because those who have been taken are members of the mob doesn't mean that they don't deserve police protection."

"I agree", I said.

Vinnie walked into the bonds office. "Have you heard the good news?" he said. "Harry the Hammer has gone missing."

Connie tensed as I said, "why is that good news, Vinnie? I would think that it would be terrible news, as if he isn't found it would put the future of the bonds office into jeopardy."

"When Harry bought out the bonds office business, he told me at the time that he would write me into his will. He promised me that, if he dies, I would inherit and become the sole owner again."

"If he has just disappeared, it could be years before the police pronounce him to be dead."

"I know", said Vinnie. "But in the meantime, I won't have him breathing down my neck. Ever since he bought out the office, he's had my nuts in a vice, which means that Lucille's had my nuts in a vice. Let me tell you, it's hard to exist with your nuts in a vice. It doesn't matter who is the one working the vice, it always hurts when your nuts are squeezed."

Connie, Lula and I stared at Vinnie for a moment. Lula recovered first. "O-kay then", she said. "Which skip is up first?"


	3. Chapter 3

I finished my cup of coffee as Lula upended her cup, and minutes later we were 'dressed' for a takedown. By dressed, I wasn't referring to clothes, although we were wearing those as well. By dressed I meant that we were both wearing our bulletproof vests, with our guns, cuffs, pepper spray, stun guns and maglites on our utility belts. We may have been inept, but we looked badass and hoped that we could scare the felons into cooperating with us. We certainly couldn't encourage them to cooperate with us any other way. Looking badass was the most intimidating thing that we had going for us.

We hadn't always dressed for the capture. In fact, more than one felon got away from us as I rooted around in my purse for my set of cuffs. Even though I was dressed, my gun didn't have bullets in it. It was a fact that Ranger had guessed at and wasn't very happy about, but he wasn't in front of me and he couldn't give me a hard time about it. If the felon ever got ahold of my gun – something that _may_ have happened before, not that I admitted to it – I could easily see him or her shooting me. I had told Ranger that refusing to put bullets into my gun was simply a self-protective sort of move. He didn't think much of that argument.

So until recently the most protection that we'd had in doing a takedown was a set of cuffs and a canister of pepper spray or – if I was out of pepper spray – a canister of hair spray. Either worked well in blinding an opponent. Lula always brought her gun to a takedown, but I hated to rely on Lula's gun. Not only did I not like to rely on guns in general, but Lula was a terrible shot. She was almost as bad as my grandmother, and my grandmother had exploded a funeral home with her bad aim. Long story short, Lula had a history of shooting things that she wasn't aiming for. Several of my cars were casualties of her aim. I'd been hit by her a few times as well. She maintained that she was an accomplished marksman and simply purchased guns with wonky sights. I, however, had a different theory. I believed she just couldn't shoot.

We got into my car and started towards our first felon's residence. "When are you getting a new car?" said Lula. My car had been shot with about a hundred bullet holes about a week before and would require just about every part on it to be replaced in order to fix it. It made more sense economically to sell the car for scrap metal value than it did to repair it.

Ranger had been encouraging me to not buy a new car but rather to continue to drive the Rangeman fleet car that had been assigned to me. He told me that it was a job perk, but it made me feel a little icky. None of his other staff were assigned a fleet car for their use doing non-Rangeman activities. Ranger's response was that none of them were the staff researcher. I knew, however, that the only reason he was assigning a vehicle to me was because I was his girlfriend, and that was the part that didn't sit right with me. If everyone had a car assigned to them, it wouldn't bother me. I just didn't want to think that I was being treated differently than anyone else.

"I don't know what I'll do", I said. "Ranger wants me to save my money and just drive this car."

"This is a much better car than you could afford", said Lula. "It has heat, air conditioning _and_ windows that roll down. It's suited to whatever weather Mother Nature throws at us. You don't even have to drive this one with a blanket on your lap."

"Only one of my cars required a blanket", I said.

"Yeah, but two of your cars had the driver's side door jammed shut and you had to get into and out of the car through the window. One of your cars had the sun roof shot out and whenever it rained your hair would get wet, and not one, but two, of your cars had formerly been pizza delivery vehicles. I gained ten pounds both times that you were driving them."

I groaned. "Don't remind me. I almost wasn't unhappy when they went to car heaven. When they exploded, all I could smell was the marinara sauce burning. It reminded of me of every attempt that I've ever made at cooking. All I wanted to do was to run into the kitchen and turn down the heat on the pot."

Lula laughed. "I used to ask you what you had to do to drive Ranger's vehicles and, although you never knew, I had always thought that Ranger would collect on his favor eventually. He always plays the end game. Now that you're going out with him though, I can't see him asking for anything other than what you're already giving him. After all, he doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd ask you to do the butt-thing, and I doubt he'd need to get into kinky shit to ramp up his interest. You're already living with him. What more could he want?"

"I don't think he wants anything from me in exchange for driving his car. He just wants to make sure I am safe. It's his way of taking care of me. He's a very protective person."

"I could stand being protected by him. I have to say, his apartment really surprised me. I didn't think that he lived in a hovel, but I didn't think it was as upscale and luxurious as it was."

"It surprised me at first as well", I said. Saying that it surprised me was an understatement. His apartment was an entire floor of his building. With his high-end kitchen and bathrooms, his million-thread count sheets and thick towels, and his sophisticated and color-coordinated décor, the result was impressive and reflected his standing as a successful businessman.

When I had first met Ranger, he more resembled a scrappy and tough street youth than he did a businessman. However, over the years he had morphed into a suave security specialist. He still had his hard side to him, and you could tell that he was still a badass. But he was now a badass with a veneer of respectability.

Ranger's apartment was a place that he guarded religiously. Until the week before, no one, other than himself, Tank, Ella and me had ever seen the inside of it. It was his sanctuary, a place where he could relax and be safe. There was very little of himself in it. A stuffed beaver that we had won at an arcade. A Hot Wheels car that I had given him. A trophy made of toilet rolls and printer paper that he won in a paintball competition with his staff. Essentially, it was a nice place to lay his head, a place where he didn't have to watch his back. However, when I moved in eleven days before Ranger had said that the apartment was now my home just as much as it was his, and he encouraged me to invite my mother and grandmother, and then Connie and Lula, for lunch. The lunches went relatively successfully. Ranger didn't run away screaming even though my grandmother shot Rex and almost killed him, and Lula didn't peek into his underwear drawer to see if he was a boxer or a brief kind of guy, even though she wanted to. All in all, the two lunches went as well or better than I had expected. It wouldn't be, however, something that I would do again in the near future. Ranger dealt with the upset to his life much better than I did. Even though a week had passed, I was still stressed from the two visits.

"Who is our first felon?" said Lula. "I sound like a game show contestant. Who is behind door number one?"

I laughed as we parked on a street in the Burg, outside the first house on the street. "Actually", I said, "we are looking for the contestant behind door number three." I pointed out the house our fugitive lived in.

"He or she?"

"She." I showed Lula the woman's mug shot. "Carlene Hennessey."

"What did she do?"

I smiled. "According to her, nothing. However, the arresting officer said that she was going seventy in a twenty zone, and he said her speed caused the accident she was in."

"Ouch."

"She said that she had sneezed, and that's why she was going so fast and was in the accident. Her foot slipped when sneezed."

"Don't you hate it when that happens?"

"Yes, but the arresting officer said that she had been going seventy for quite some time and she definitely wasn't sneezing for as long as she was driving seventy. And he said that she wouldn't have been in the accident, sneezing or not, if she hadn't been driving so fast."

"What kind of accident was she in?"

"She did some off-roading and was stopped when she crashed into a speed sign."

"There is some irony in that."

"Yes, there is."

"Was the speed posted at twenty miles an hour?"

"Yes."

"Any damage to the car?"

"Her doors jammed shut and apparently she had to climb out the window. Her front bumper crumpled in and the speed sign left a deep gouge and scrapes along the hood."

"So her crashed vehicle was in better condition than most of the cars you have bought in the last few years."

I laughed.

"Let's go get Little Miss Sneezy", said Lula.

We both got out of the car. We were luckily not parked on Stark Street but were located in the Burg. This meant that there was a greater chance that the car would still be there when it was time to leave. I don't know what it was about Stark Street, but almost invariably when I went to capture someone on Stark something happened to my car. If it wasn't stolen it was shot out or exploded or vandalized or… Unfortunately for me, it wasn't vandalized nearly as many times as it was stolen, shot out or exploded. Periodically, two of those things would happen at once.

The Rangeman staff looked forward to my various car incapacitations and thefts. They had a pool predicting the date of the next occurrence. Because they sometimes occurred in succession on the same day, those participating also had to guess the time of the occurrence. The winner earned the money that was generated through the pool but, from what I could see, the real draw was that the staff member who won was the staff member who was sent to help me. This wasn't very interesting when the car was merely shot with a hundred holes, but when the car was stolen this meant that the winner was allowed to go in and steal the car back. This was done in a variety of ways. At times, it was done by threatening the thief with a gun. At times it involved a more physical interaction. Periodically it involved the Rangeman staff member literally stealing it away again, but the ones that the staff particularly seemed to enjoy were the times that they were able to bounce some of the thieves off the bumpers. I particularly enjoyed those as well, as when they did that the winning staff member gave my car a wash to remove the blood and guts and bone fragments. Perhaps unfortunately for me, this meant that my car was constantly clean.

The bonds office had a similar pool, as did the police. But while the police was similar in that the winner received a sum of money, with the bonds office the winner won a dozen doughnuts. They said my incapacitations/thefts happened too frequently for there to be a more expensive prize. But I didn't know what they were talking about. I only had a car emergency about once every two or three weeks.

The last time that I was on Stark was the week before, and my car had been hit with a double whammy. It had been shot out and exploded. That wouldn't have been as bad if it wasn't for the fact that it was the second car incapacitation that day. And that wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the fact that the next day my car again exploded. And even _that_ wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't that two of the cars that exploded were owned by Ranger. I think, though, that three cars in two days has been my all-time record. I think. I could be wrong. I've had a lot of car incapacitations in my time. I think I've personally owned thirty cars since I started skip tracing, and I've gone through at least another ten of Ranger's. I've gone through so many, in fact, that I can no longer get comprehensive insurance for my cars. Trust me. I know. I've tried. The insurance companies all think that I'm a bad risk. Go figure.

The only car that seemed to last through my use of it was Big Blue. Given to my grandmother in Uncle Sandor's will, it was a 1953 powder-blue Buick, a boat of a car that predated my birth by a few decades. It was the kind of car that men drooled over and seniors reminisced about. For some reason, it was indestructible. In the past, I'd taken that baby into the roughest areas of Trenton and come out the other side. If it wasn't for the fact that Big Blue stuck out, I would probably drive it more regularly. But there was no ability to go incognito when you were driving Big Blue, and for that reason it was a bad choice for a stealth car.

Lula and I walked up the pathway to the third house on the street and positioned ourselves to the side of the door. We knew by experience that felons periodically shot through the door first and asked questions later. We assumed our favorite positions for talking to the skips. For me, it was with my hands on my hips. For Lula, it was with her hand on her gun. I glared at her and physically gave her the 'no guns' vibe.

"Hunh", she said. "You have all those rules. I'm a good shot."

"Is that so?" I said with a grimace. "Last week you shot Vinnie's car." When two felons had threatened me, they put a clip into my car. It was the first of the three incapacitations last week. Lula pulled a gun on them, and they ran away. She shot at them but instead of hitting their fleeing car she hit Vinnie's instead. Apparently they didn't know of Lula's ineptitude with her gun or they would never have hustled as fast as they did. She _never_ hit what she was aiming for.

"That was an accident", said Lula. "I got a new gun on the weekend, one with better sights on it. If my old gun had better sights, I would never have hit Vinnie's car."

I shook my head and rang the doorbell. There was no answer. I waited and listened. I heard the sounds of a television through the door, so I rang the doorbell again. After several more doorbell-ringings, a rumpled woman came to the door. "How may I help you?" Her eyes grew wide when she saw Lula's hand resting on her gun.

"I'm Stephanie and this is Lula. We're here representing Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. You missed your court date and we're here to take you back in to reschedule."

The woman laughed. "No, really – who are you?"

"I told you", I said. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my fake Identification. It was a bounty hunter badge that I had purchased over the internet. Most people didn't know that the ID was fake though, and it had worked well in the past for opening doors and getting accepted. "We're here representing your bail bonds office."

Carlene barely looked at the credentials. "You might have had me believe you if your names weren't Stephanie and Lula. Lula! It sounds like a clown's name."

I looked at Lula, and she looked furious. "I ought to put a slug up your ass for disrespecting my name like that", said Lula. "I was named after a friend of my mother's." Her hand jerked her gun out of her holster and she pointed it at Carlene.

"No guns!" I said.

"Hunh", said Lula. She shoved her gun back in her holster, whipped out her stun gun and, as Carlene looked on with a somewhat smug expression on her face, she zapped Carlene until the woman collapsed at our feet. As a wet stain appeared on her pants, Lula shook her head. "That's what you get for disrespecting my name."


	4. Chapter 4

I reached down and cuffed Carlene. "Feel better?" I asked Lula.

"A little. I'd feel better if we added the shackles." For the violent skips, I had a set of shackles that I could use. There was a bolt in the floor of the car that I could attach the shackles to, which ensured that the skip wouldn't run away. Ranger always used shackles when he was capturing someone. I rarely used them. It was my experience that most skips weren't violent or needed to be intimidated, and the sight of shackles seemed to bring the worst out in people. A perfectly cooperative skip that didn't take offence to having cuffs put on frequently would go wild when faced with shackles. In my experience, they were more trouble than they were worth. But when I looked at the hurt expression on Lula's face, I knew that we'd be using shackles that morning.

I handed over my keys. "If you go get them, we'll use them."

Lula's face brightened, and she took the keys from my hand before walking down the street to where I was parked. I got shoes and a coat for Carlene while Lula was gone, and I put the shoes on Carlene's feet while she was still passed out. Lula returned at about the same time as Carlene started to stir. "What happened?" she asked.

"You were disrespecting Lula and she stunned you."

"That has to be illegal."

"I'm authorized to bring you into the station using any means possible", I said. That wasn't exactly true. Stunning was seen as a no-no. But Carlene didn't know that and if I was definite about what happened, it was more unlikely that she would bring it up at the police station.

Lula reached us, bent down, and started to attach the shackles to Carlene's ankles.

Carlene didn't like that. Just like any other time that we had put shackles on a felon, she struggled against them, kicked out, and connected her toe with Lula's eye.

"I wouldn't do that", I said. "Lula will shoot you the next time. And yes, that's legal as well."

Carlene stopped struggling and Lula finished affixing the shackles to her feet. I held out my hand for my keys. "Lula, why don't you close up Carlene's house while we wait."

"I can wait with her", said Lula.

"No", I said. "If I leave you with Carlene, you will shoot her and that's a whole lot of paperwork that I don't want to fill out. I have things that I have to do today, and answering questions because you shot someone isn't it."

Lula and I counted to three, and then hauled Carlene to her feet. Lula ran through the house to make sure that all windows were closed and locked, the stove turned off and the food put away, and the back door locked. Lula picked up Carlene's purse and carried it through to the front door. "Are your keys in here?" she said.

Carlene nodded.

Lula rooted through Carlene's purse until she found the keys to the house, and she locked the door.

The neighbor came out from his house when we were walking Carlene to the car. He paused and looked at us. "Where are you taking Carlene?" he said.

"Help me, Bill", said Carlene.

Bill reached out and grabbed me, twisted my hand up behind my back, and said, "you're not taking Carlene anywhere." He pushed me in front of him up his walkway to his house.

"Freeze, sucker", said Lula. I looked behind me, and Lula was standing beside Carlene with her gun out again.

"Good grief", I said. "Lula, put the gun away. Bill, I'm a bounty hunter. Carlene was supposed to go to court and face her charges, but she skipped her court appearance."

"That's because it was a bogus charge. I sneezed. I was only going seventy. Haven't you ever speeded before?"

"I understand that you think it is a bogus charge, but that doesn't mean that you can avoid court. If you think the charge is bogus you have to get up in front of a judge to get them to throw your charges out of court. I cannot do that, and nor can you. Only a judge can do something like that."

Bill reached behind his door and pulled out a rifle. He pointed it at me. "Let Carlene go. She hasn't done anything wrong. She was just speeding and she sneezed. That's no reason to treat her as a criminal."

"If she hasn't done anything wrong", I said, "call the police and let them assess whether she should be picked up. At the same time, they can arrest me if they think that is the best thing for them to do."

Bill wavered until Carlene looked at him. "Bill, honey, these women are treating me like a criminal. I just sneezed."

"In the eyes of the law, you are a criminal." I turned to Bill. "Call the police. Do you need their number?"

"Please", said Bill. "They can sort this mess out."

I sighed and gave Bill the number.

Twenty minutes later, Eddie Gazarra and Big Dog showed up. I had known Eddie since I was in diapers and, in fact, he was married to my cousin, Shirley-the-Whiner. While I had known Eddie for all my life, Big Dog was a newer friend. I had only been introduced to him after I had started bounty hunting, but he had been supportive to me throughout my many car incapacitations and house break-ins and any of the other reasons I'd had to call the police.

Bill was still training a gun on me. Lula was still training a gun on Carlene. Carlene was looking pretty happy with herself, and I was struggling to hold my temper. "Steph", said Eddie as he walked up to the house, "how are you?" He looked at Bill and Lula. "You can put your guns away."

Lula still looked angry, but she holstered her pistol. Bill quickly put his gun behind the door again, probably in the hopes that Eddie wouldn't look too closely at the gun registration. "What's going on?" said Eddie.

"All I did was answer the door", said Carlene, "and these women cuffed me and told me that they were taking me to the police. I knew the police would never send someone with a clown's name to come and pick me up though, so I refused to go with them. They stunned me and, when I came to, they put shackles on me. So when they were moving me to their car to finish kidnapping me, I called out for help."

"Steph?"

"Do you know this woman, officer?" said Bill.

"Stephanie Plum is a representative of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, and she's a fugitive apprehension agent. She captures people who have skipped court and brings them back to the court system. I know her well."

"Can I go through my purse now?" I said.

When Bill nodded and Carlene started to appear uncomfortable, I pulled out my Right to Apprehend papers. Eddie looked them over and turned to Carlene. "Are you Carlene Hennessey?"

"Yes."

"Can I see some ID?"

I handed Carlene's purse over to Eddie, and he rooted through her things until he found her wallet, and searched through her wallet until he found her identification. He looked over the paperwork again. "Ms. Hennessey, you were going seventy in a school zone. Most likely because of your speed, you lost control of the car and crashed. You were lucky that you didn't hurt anyone or even yourself. As I'm sure Stephanie told you and as it was written in the fine print on your bail bond agreement, when you miss your court date, she is authorized to bring you into court. Knowing Stephanie, you weren't very nice to her otherwise you would never have been shackled. Stephanie doesn't like to do that unless the skips are violent or particularly loathsome."

"I was a model citizen", said Carlene.

Lula snorted. "Except when you made fun of my name", said Lula.

"Well, would you believe it if a couple of women who don't look particularly accomplished showed up and told you that their names were Stephanie and Lula and that they were authorized to take you to court and that you should go with them? I mean, really? Lula? I can't decide whether it sounds like a hooker's name or a clown's name."

"It's a good name", said Lula. She pulled her gun out again.

"Lula", I said warningly, "no guns."

Eddie exchanged cuffs with me, took off the shackles and handed those to me as well, and turned to Bill. "Thank you for following up about this issue", he said. "Stephanie really is a bounty hunter and really is capturing Carlene because she didn't show up at court when she was supposed to. Carlene really is a wanted fugitive and she will be until she goes back to court to get rescheduled."

Eddie turned to me. "I'm assuming that I'm bringing Carlene into the station?"

"That would be great, Eddie. This delay has me running late on my day."

He handed me my documentation and shook Bill's hand, then guided Carlene down the walkway and over to his car. He helped her inside before turning to me. "Between you and your mother, you're keeping us busy."

"I can't believe that Mom got in a fight with Mary Lou's mother at Giovichinni's."

Eddie laughed. "It was pretty sweet. It's as they say – never get between a mother bear and its baby. Your mother was vicious when you were being criticized."

"From what I heard, Mary Lou's mother just said all the things that Mom has been telling me for years."

"Yes, but mothers often think they have the right to say things that no one else is allowed to think or say. Trust me, it's the same with my own mother."

"That's true", I said. I was still surprised. Although my mother didn't complain about the danger associated with my job in public, I never realized that she would come out swinging on my behalf. Besides, I knew the real issue with my mother, as much as she would like more grandkids, wasn't that she thought I necessarily had to have kids or that I didn't have anything in my life to be proud of. She just wanted me to quit my job and couldn't understand why I'd choose a life that she perceived as being dangerous, and she thought me having kids was the most expedient way of forcing me to quit. I always knew she was complaining because she was scared that something would happen to me.

"At least your mother cares enough about you to complain about you", said Lula. "My mother was too strung out to notice whether I was even in the room."

"Talking about mothers is making me hungry", I said as I glanced at my watch. "What do you say about visiting my mother and grandmother for lunch?"

Eddie clapped me on my shoulder. "Say hi to Aunt Helen for me", he said.


	5. Chapter 5

My parents live in one half of a duplex just around the corner from where Carlene lived, still in the house that I had grown up. It used to be a combination of mustard yellow and brown siding and, mixed with the lime green house next door, looked like something that a dog would have brought up after raiding the garbage. Due to an unfortunate incident with one of my skips, the house was painted with a variety of graphic images and inflammatory words. While my grandmother voted to keep the vandalism for its shock value, my mother elected to use the vandalism as an excuse to paint the house in the color that she had always wanted, a light butter yellow shade that went well with the dark red door that she had dreamed of. The new color coordinated better with the neighbor's bargain basement paint choice, and together they were no longer described as a train wreck of a house. Together, they looked almost pretty.

The house consisted of a living room, dining room and kitchen following one another in a line like dominoes on the main floor, and three small bedrooms and a bathroom on the upper level. The house wasn't large, but it was full of love and would always represent home to me. Even just driving down the street I could feel my irritation over Carlene's capture disappearing, and by the time I got to the house I was feeling significantly less frustrated over my morning.

My grandmother was standing at the door when we drove up. I used to think that my grandmother had a supernatural sense as to when family members were about to arrive, and was waiting at the door precisely when we arrived as a result. However, I have now come to realize that my grandmother was just bored and liked to spend part of her day standing at the door in the hopes of seeing something interesting on the street.

My grandmother looked excited when she saw us parking the car, and she opened the door to the house as we walked up the front steps. "Isn't this a nice surprise!" said my grandmother. She ushered us into the house and I looked at her. Her eyes were clouded with cataracts and bright with interest. Her skin was flabby and hung down from her arms like wings. She was stoop-shouldered and white-haired and shrinking, but she cared about her family and friends deeply, had an unholy fascination for gossip, and filled her time by driving my parents nuts. I looked at Lula and thought about how much the two of them resembled each other. Yes, physically they were complete opposites, and Grandma had a good forty years on Lula – which was fair, because Lula had a good forty pounds on my grandmother. But they were both enthralled with anything new, both would do anything for their loved ones, and both were loyal and compassionate people. No matter how many years they lived, neither of them would ever get old.

Lula and I stopped to take our boots off and we hung up our coats. "Are you wearing your bulletproof vest?" said my grandmother. "Were you out skip tracing?"

"Yes and yes", I said. I smiled. My grandmother looked excited. She had discovered a week ago that I wore a bulletproof vest when I went out to capture felons, and she thought that was such a wonderful idea that she intended to buy herself a bulletproof vest the next time she got her Social Security check.

"Did you need some help?" she asked. "My bulletproof vest doesn't show up until next week, but I could still help you now."

"You ordered one, did you?" I said.

My mother came out and gave the two of us a hug. "I just put on fresh coffee." She shook her head as she led us into the kitchen to sit at the small table pushed to the side of the room. Any family news was shared over coffee at that table – engagements, breakups, marriages, pregnancies, job losses and promotions. It was an essential piece of the Plum family fabric. I sat down and relished the feeling of familiarity.

"I don't know why she needs a bulletproof vest", said my mother as she poured cups of coffee for everyone. "I told her she should save her money for Christmas. I can't believe that it is only six weeks away."

"I haven't started shopping yet", I said.

"I have", said Lula. "I'm almost finished. Of course, I only buy for four people, so that makes shopping not only less expensive, but also less time-consuming."

"I should do my online shopping while Ranger is away and can't see over my shoulder what I am looking at."

"What are you planning on getting Ranger for Christmas?" asked Lula. My mother and grandmother perked up their ears as my mother distributed the coffee and put the cream and sugar down in the center of the table, and then sat down and looked expectantly at me.

I groaned. "I have no idea. I was wondering about fuzzy dice to put on his rearview mirror of his car as a gag gift, but I don't know what I can give him for a Christmas gift. He's not particularly attached to his house and I don't think he would like anything for it. He mainly wears Rangeman uniforms, so clothing is out of the question. He doesn't normally cook, so kitchenware doesn't make sense. If I got him something like a new set of cuffs for his job he'd get the wrong idea."

"Nothing wrong with that idea, dear", said my grandmother.

"Ma!" said my mother.

"Role play is always good", said Lula.

"So you think she should buy him tickets to the next furry convention?" said my mother as she looked intrigued despite herself. "I never would have taken Ranger for someone who enjoyed dressing up."

"I don't know", said Lula. "I could see him as a raccoon with that black mask on to hide his identity. There's a reason I call him Mr. Mysterio."

"I think he'd be better to go as a horse", said my grandmother. "Because that's what he resembles." My grandmother, a few years ago, happened to walk in on Ranger when he was stepping out of the shower, and she got a good view of his attributes. She frequently mentioned it since then to various reactions. My mother was horrified and wished it had never happened, my sister was intrigued and wanted details, and Lula was envious and tried to engineer similar situations where she could walk in on Ranger and get her own eyeful.

"Ma!" said my mother.

I laughed. "I'm not buying tickets to a furry convention", I said. "Ranger would be horrified and would probably give the tickets away to Vinnie. There is someone who would like a furry convention."

"Why would he go to the convention when he could have the real thing?" said Lula.

"Does he really have sex with animals?" said my mother in a horrified whisper. "I thought that was just a myth."

Lula looked at me. She knew I hated lying to my mother, but she also knew this was something that I knew for sure that he did. After all, just half a year ago he was being blackmailed for a videotape of him having sex with a dog. We caught the guy, but it was a tense month while we were looking for him and couldn't find him.

"I've never seen it personally", I said. I'd had the chance to watch the video. Vinnie had thought that seeing it would be educational for me, and he encouraged me to watch it. _I_ thought it would make family reunions challenging and declined the opportunity.

"Me neither", said Lula. She also hadn't wanted to see the video. She liked dogs.

My mother breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'd like to go to a furry convention", said my grandmother.

"Ma!" said my mother. Her eyes strayed to the whiskey cabinet.

"What would you go as, Grandma?" I said.

"Steph! Don't encourage her!" said my mother.

"I think I'd like to be a bunny, because they have sex a lot", said my grandmother.

"I thought you'd like to be a sex kitten", said Lula.

My mother jumped up and said rather desperately, "who wants lunch? We bought some meats at the deli today, and Giovichinni had a special on ambrosia salad so we bought an extra big helping."

"What's ambrosia salad?" said Lula.

"It's like a fruit salad with marshmallows in it", said Grandma.

"That's my kind of salad", said Lula.

"Giovichinni's makes the best ambrosia", said Grandma. "They use the colored marshmallows, and that makes all the difference."

I smiled as I thought about what Ranger's reaction would be to finding marshmallows in with his fruit. It might be worth giving it to him just to see the reaction.


	6. Chapter 6

After an excellent lunch – with the ambrosia salad – I left Lula at the office and motored over to the Rangeman facility. I parked, went up to the seventh floor and hung up my utility belt and bulletproof vest, changed into a Rangeman uniform, strapped on my gun belt, and descended to my desk for the afternoon.

I opened up my office, turned on my computer and, as it was warming up, I walked down to the break room to get myself a coffee. As I was walking out of the break room, Tank walked in. "Hey, Steph. Are you in for the rest of the day?" He filled his cup with coffee. Like Ranger, he took it black. I personally didn't know how he did it. I liked so much cream in mine that it was a chocolate milk color when it was finished. Of course, if I could add hot chocolate to the mix and make it a mocha, I liked it even better.

"I am. I was going to start my afternoon by running those names we talked about last night. I saw that Morelli sent me that information this morning, but I haven't had a chance to look at it."

"I know Morelli was hoping to talk to you as well."

"I need to talk to him too. From what I've heard, Harry the Hammer has disappeared."

"That makes eight this month."

"Connie said that the family is getting nervous and she's worried as to what they'll do when they are nervous. She said the last time they were nervous they went on a killing spree. Forty-two people later, they weren't nervous any longer. She also said that although she wants to pull Morelli in, she doesn't want him to get caught in the crossfire if the family gets nervous and decides to kill everyone who didn't stop what was happening."

"Although I don't want anything to happen to Morelli, I especially don't want anything to happen to you. I encouraged him to bring you in on this case because you are the best person for the job. However, like Morelli I also was concerned about you being involved. I need you to be careful." He followed me down to my office. When we got there, he came inside and sat down on one of the guest chairs.

I smiled at him. "I promise that I'll be careful", I said.

"You have my number", said Tank. "Keep me on speed dial."

"Don't worry", I said.

"You aren't protected now that Ranger isn't here."

"What will happen to me? I live in the most secure building definitely in Trenton and maybe in all of New Jersey. I think I'm safe, Tank."

"And I want you to stay safe. Let me know if you notice anything hinky at all, or if something doesn't seem right to you. I hear what you're saying about living in a secure building, but I don't have a good feeling about things."

"I'll play it safe."

"That's all I can ask." He stood up and picked up his coffee cup, said goodbye, and left the room.

I got into my email and looked at the files that Joe had sent to me. Ranger and Joe had done a good job and had found out a lot of information about the two brothers. But in reviewing the file, I knew that I could get much, much more.

Before I sunk my teeth into the research, I called Morelli. "Hey", I said when he picked up his phone. "Is this a bad time?"

"No. Becky and I are just finishing lunch. Did you see the file that I sent you?"

"I just finished reviewing it. The two of you did a good job starting it off."

"Do you think you can find out more information?"

"I do. Leave it with me for a few days, and I'll get it back to you as soon as I can. Have you talked to Connie recently?"

"No, I haven't. I've talked to Terry though. Does Connie want to tell me that the natives are getting restless as well?"

"Yes, and she wanted to report that Harry the Hammer seems to have disappeared."

"Fuck. This whole situation just keeps getting worse. I'll drop in and see her this afternoon."

"She wants to report it unofficially. She thinks the police should be involved, but there are certain members of the mob who are pushing to keep the investigation and the punishment done in house. I don't think that she knows that Vito has already gotten you involved and I didn't tell her."

"Okay. Do you have any other good news for me?"

"Nope. I'll keep you on speed dial and, if something comes up, I'll call."

"Okay, cupcake. I'll talk to you later."

"Enjoy the rest of your lunch." I hung up the phone and knuckled down to work.

As the day wore on, I was thankful that Ranger had set me up with lessons with Leo a few weeks before. I would never have the computer supersleuth skills or the ability to get in anywhere at any time like Leo could, but by the end of my time learning from him I had a number of other avenues to explore above and beyond using In-Spect when I wanted to do a more in-depth search for information. I now had confidence that I could get an accurate picture of the person or company that I was researching and, if I thought there was still more that was eluding me, I now had a good contact in Leo. We had gotten along well and he had told me that he would help me any time I needed assistance.

So, by one-thirty in the morning, I had developed an extensive dossier on both the two men and the company they owned. I had spent hours on it and had not yet had a chance to do any analysis. I was leaving that until the next day, when I wouldn't be looking at it punch drunk with fatigue. I also knew that the analysis would identify additional avenues to research.

I slept until eight again, but instead of rolling over and sleeping another half hour, I hauled myself out of bed. I had really wanted to sleep more. Six hours at night was definitely not enough time for me, but I promised myself an afternoon nap if I had a good morning doing analysis. I had found that, at times when the analysis was particularly important, that I needed a substantial break after about three hours. My regular pattern, when I had to concentrate like that, was for me to work for fifty minutes, take a ten-minute bathroom break/coffee break, then work for another fifty minutes and so on. I could do that cycle about three times before my brain was fried. I then needed to take a significant break. I often did that by going to the bonds office and chasing skips for a couple of hours. I also did that by taking an hour to relax and have lunch with Ranger. Today I'd be taking a two-hour nap. I could hardly wait.

I finally was successful at prying my eyes open five minutes into the shower and, as I stepped out again, I heard Ella leave breakfast in the kitchen. I called out a thank you as she called out her wish for me to have a good day, and I combed out my wet hair and went to see what Ella had made me for breakfast. I smiled as I lifted the plate cover. Ella had made me a BLT for breakfast. She had loaded the sandwich with bacon, and it smelled amazing. Bacon was something that Ranger didn't allow in his shop. His view was that it was something that didn't have many nutrients but had a lot of calories, and the nutrient to calorie ratio wasn't high enough to justify eating the food. I had a different view. I didn't look at the nutrient quality. I looked at the taste quality, and any food that was as salty and as fatty and as tasty as bacon was a good food in my book. I looked at it as bacon being one of God's given pleasures and should be partaken as frequently as possible. Ella knew my views, and when Ranger was away she frequently made me bacon at breakfast. It was the only good part to Ranger leaving.

I inhaled the scent of my food and let my mouth water for a minute before I took my first bite. Pure heaven! I could never be a vegetarian just because of the no-bacon thing. Somehow I didn't think that tofu-bacon would be the same. Of course, I was equally addicted to a good burger, and meat lasagna, and… Okay, I like all food. Except for cabbage rolls. Cabbage is meant to be served raw, in coleslaw. There was just something wrong with the concept of cooking cabbage. After all, people didn't cook lettuce, did they?

I sighed as I finished my sandwich. Ella made a superior sandwich, loaded with bacon and with just the right amount of mayonnaise on the toast. I didn't care what Ranger said. That bacon sandwich had been worth every single one of the calories that I had just ingested.

I went back into the bathroom and blasted my hair with the dryer, gunked up my eyes with mascara and applied some gloss, dressed in Rangeman black, strapped on my gun, and left the apartment for the morning. As I walked down to my office, I saw Ella. "That was a superior breakfast", I said.

Ella smiled. "I thought you might like it. You haven't had that since the last time Ranger left and, when I was making that for Luis this morning for breakfast, I thought you'd enjoy it as well."

I grinned. "I think I love you."

Ella laughed.

Ramon walked back from the break room. "What did you have for breakfast?" he said.

I knew that Ranger wouldn't want his staff to eat bacon, and I knew that Ella wouldn't want it known that she was treating me any different than the rest of the staff. So I said the first thing that popped into my mind. "Peanut butter and olive sandwiches", I said. "For some reason, Ranger says they turn his stomach when he watches me eat them."

"Ugh", said Ramon. "I can see why. I thought you were going to say something good, like bacon. And I was going to ask Ella to make the rest of the staff bacon as well when Ranger was away. But I'll pass on the peanut butter and olive sandwiches and stick to the Ranger-approved breakfast burritos."

"Your loss", I said with a smile.


	7. Chapter 7

_I'm in a bad mood. My dad is in the hospital and not doing well, my husband was in a car accident today (he is fine; our car is not), and my muse has left me in writing Tamper 32. I'm posting an extra chapter to cheer myself up – please leave reviews…they always make me smile. Thanks,_

_~ Sarah ~_

I sipped my coffee as I looked through the research that I had done the night before. Luigi and Lorenzo themselves were fairly clean. A few speeding tickets over the years, an arrest for hiring a prostitute, nothing outstanding as being unusual. I filled in their previous charges under the section entitled "Previous Criminal History". I looked through their financials and detailed them under "Financial Overview", then looked through the people in their lives that they had been linked to and detailed their family and friends under the section entitled "Social Connections". Neither Luigi nor Lorenzo had gotten married or had children, but their sister had married a Robert Bianchi. They had one niece out of that union and, to all intents and purposes, they appeared to be quite close to their niece. I stopped my analysis of Luigi's and Lorenzo's lives and did a social network search for Rebecca Bianchi. I turned up her Facebook site and found several pictures of her with her uncles. There were additional photos of her with her parents and a bereavement notice from when her mother died three months before. I thought that living through her mother's death would be hard. I may have had my run-ins with my mother over the years, but I would be devastated when my mother eventually passed away. I made a note of the connection to Luigi and Lorenzo, and I copied the pictures of Rebecca with the two men into the report.

I did some more reading. Robert Bianchi was the third owner of the three companies. I made note of that and decided that I would analyze his life as well.

By the time I had finished my analysis of Luigi and Lorenzo, it was dinnertime. I still had to finish investigating Robert Bianchi's life and I thought I'd look more into their niece's life, but I thought I might be able to complete it that evening. I headed into the break room to see the offerings for dinner, and had helped myself to a bowl of chili and a bun and had found myself a seat at the table when Tank walked into the room. "How's it going?" he said.

"Good. The research should be completed by noon tomorrow. I did most of the research yesterday, the analysis today, and I just have a few other leads to follow before I finalize my report."

Tank helped himself to a bowl of chili, two sandwiches, a large salad, and a container of fruit for his dinner. I guessed, at well over six feet, that it would take a lot of food to keep Tank going.

"How about we eat dinner together in my office and go over your research results?" said Tank. He juggled his food in his hands and led me down to his office. I sat in the guest chair as he sat behind his desk. "What did you find out?" he said.

"There are three people who own Garbrec Incorporated, Papyrus Fibers, and Gastron Foods. Garbrec operates a material recovery facility and offers waste and recycling collection services. Papyrus is a paper manufacturing company, and Gastron makes bagels and pretzels. Those three people are Luigi and Lorenzo Vistonni, and Robert Bianchi. Robert is their brother-in-law and is the Chief Financial Officer for the three companies while Luigi is the CEO and Lorenzo is the CAO. All three of the owners moved to Trenton just two years ago. The waste management company opened their doors at the same time, but both the paper manufacturing plant and the bakery didn't open until a year ago. They submit their taxes on time, are operating in the black, and pay its employees well. The three companies offer both a benefit and a pension plan. Garbrec employs thirty-eight people, Papyrus employs sixty-three people and Gastron employs fifty-six people. They each only have one location, all here in Trenton. Their three facilities are located beside one another. Hours of operation for both are from eight in the morning until four-thirty at night, and they are closed on weekends. They got the money to open their facilities through a combination of an inheritance as well as the sale of similar facilities in Newark. It was unclear as to where their parents got their money.

"According to the Garbrec promotional material, their location acts as a transfer station, where garbage is accumulated onsite for transport to the local landfill. It says that it also acts as a material recycling facility, and recyclables are sorted onsite and sold to the various end users. That is what they advertise. But like Ranger had found, there were records of sales of the recyclables but there are few weigh scale tickets for the landfill and the weigh scale receipts that are provided aren't for large loads – nothing more than would be typical for an office building with that many employees. According to the IRS, though, the company takes in several million dollars for their garbage services. Garbrec's waste management customers aren't identified, so I looked into the companies that are using their recycling services hoping that the companies contracted Garbrec for both services. However, by checking Garbrec client accounts I have determined that the companies using Garbrec's recycling service don't use them for their garbage collection service. While they use Garbrec for their recycling program, their garbage programs are provided by a variety of different companies. Their recycling fees that they have reported from Garbrec, though, are astronomical and I can't imagine that recycling programs are that expensive or no company would ever recycle their materials. It appears as though Garbrec is charging for a phantom service.

"I looked into the items that they buy, and it's true that they buy a vast quantity of caustic soda. It is, however, bought both for the bakery and for the paper manufacturing facility, and in both cases is something that would be used in their process. It is bought by the tanker-full. In both cases, there are one thousand-gallon tanks onsite for the containment of the chemical. The interesting thing is that, although purchasing lye for their bakery or their paper manufacturing facility makes sense, Garbrec used to buy barrels of lye before they had the bakery and, now that they have the bakery, they are no longer purchasing lye This could be explained by their practice of getting rid of road kill, but it is curious that they no longer purchase the chemical as they would still have road kill to get rid of. All other purchases made by either Garbrec or Papyrus or Gastron seem typical."

"So it appears as though Morelli should storm the company and test the quality of the lye", said Tank.

"Yes, but it will be hard to get a warrant for the search. Lye is a perfectly normal ingredient used in the manufacturing process for bagels or in the manufacturing of paper. Interestingly, the purchase of the bakery and the paper plant didn't happen until the pollution was identified in the paper." I sighed. "There isn't enough to hang a conviction on at the moment. To be able to charge the company for murder, which is what I think is happening, there would have to be more than circumstantial evidence. The lye is the key. Morelli needs to test to see if the lye in the two facilities is contaminated.

"I also looked into Luigi's, Lorenzo's and Robert's lives. Luigi and Lorenzo are both bachelors and have never been married. Robert, as I said, had been married. His wife died about three months ago and they have only one child, a daughter named Rebecca. According to Rebecca's Facebook page, she is quite close to her uncles and has several pictures of them on her site. Luigi and Lorenzo and Robert list their employment as executives for Garbrec, but Rebecca is a pharmaceutical sales rep and earns a good salary. She seems to be quite outgoing, loves people, and is very family-oriented."

"You seem to have focused your research on Rebecca."

"Not really. I have pages of analysis done on Luigi and Lorenzo and Robert. But instinct says that there is something there with Rebecca. I'm planning on looking into her more after dinner."

"What are you hoping to find?"

"I don't know, but something is telling me that something is there. I'll look into her this evening and hope for an eureka moment to happen."

"What are Luigi's and Lorenzo's habits? Vices? Loves? Anything we can capitalize on?"

"Luigi and Lorenzo are quiet men. They both like to drink, based on the vast quantity of alcohol that they buy each week, but they don't partake of any of the other vices. They love their family and seem to be ambitious. They drive regular cars and live in regular houses, but their bank accounts are well padded and are much healthier than their lifestyle would suggest."

"Does instinct say that they are the enforcers for the mob?"

"I don't know. Instinct says that there is something there, but what that something is, I don't know. We'd need to have someone working from within to give us more information. Perhaps Terry will be able to help Morelli piece it together." I was pleased that I could say her name without hissing.

Tank finished his chili and started eating his sandwiches. I finished my chili and dreamed about my dessert upstairs in the kitchen. Like with bacon, Ranger didn't believe that the nutrient to calorie ratio made it worth giving dessert to his staff. Like with bacon, I thought he was nuts. Sure, the nutrient to calorie ratio might not have been high, but the happiness to calorie ratio was and that, I thought, made it all worth it.

Ranger knew of my views concerning dessert and frequently bribed me with dessert to get me to do things like cardio exercises for fifteen minutes a day. It worked, even though I knew that Ranger would never deny me sweets. After all, he stocked a cupboard in his apartment with a variety of chocolate bars and cheez doodles and other forms of junk food especially for me. It certainly wasn't for him. If I ate something from that cupboard, I just had to leave the empty packaging on the counter and Ella automatically restocked the cupboard the next day. He had learned that sweets made me happy and, just because he didn't like them, didn't mean that he would stop me from having them myself.

Ella knew of my love of dessert, and she made me some from scratch every day. Sometimes it was a homemade cake. Sometimes it was pie – with a pie crust that was made from scratch rather than a frozen pie crust from the grocery store. Sometimes it was pudding or flan or trifle or ice cream or cookies or dessert squares. Whatever Ella chose to make, the results were always good and I always looked forward to eating it.

As was my usual practice with Ranger gone, Ella knew that I would eat dinner in the break room. However, she had told me in the past that eating dinner in the break room shouldn't have to mean that I went without dessert. Usually, when Ranger was gone she would pop a dessert into the fridge in the apartment for me to have as a bedtime snack. It was something I looked forward to every night. Ella had texted me that afternoon that there was a surprise waiting for me in the fridge, and I looked forward to seeing what it was. With Ranger gone, it was the little things that kept me going.

I said goodbye to Tank, debated about heading upstairs to see what Ella had made me, and then debated some more. After some mental tug-of-war, I decided that I needed more of a break than simply having dinner with Tank. It may have been the call of dessert that was guiding my choices, but I had never been good at self-denial, and having a shower to wake myself up, dressing in some of Ranger's clothes to make me more comfortable, and eating some of Ella's surprise, seemed like an excellent decision. I shut down my computer and closed up my office. As I walked past Tank's office, he called out to me. "Finished for the day?" he said in surprise. I could see why he was. I had just finished telling him of the work that I had been planning on doing that evening.

"No. I just think that I need a change of scene", I said. "I'm going to work in Ranger's home office for the evening. I think it's time to have a shower to wake up and change into my pajamas."

Tank smiled. "Sounds like a good idea. When you are finished your report for Morelli, send it to me and to Ranger as well, okay?"

"Does Ranger know that you asked me to help on the file?"

Tank smiled. "I let him know yesterday. I also promised him that you'd be careful, and I reminded him that you knew that we had your back if things went topsy-turvy. You do know that, don't you?"

I laughed. "Tank, Rangeman has saved me numerous times. If I didn't know that you have my back by now, I'd have to be particularly dense."

Tank smiled. "You're one of us, Steph, above and beyond your relationship with Ranger. There isn't one person on staff that wouldn't willingly give their life for you."

"That makes me feel icky."

"Why? You've proven that you would give your life for them." It was true. About six or seven months ago, I had a skip that threatened one of the Rangeman staff if I didn't give myself up and, against the commands by both Ranger and Morelli, I went in and protected Ralph. Ranger called the decision foolhardy but heroic. Morelli called it foolhardy and stupid, and it was his reaction and his anger at that decision that made me ultimately decide to break up with him. "That's what teammates do, Steph. And you are a valuable member of the Rangeman team." I yawned. "Leave the rest of the analysis for tonight. Go home, relax, and go to bed early. You look exhausted."

"I am tired." I had to admit, Tank's idea of going to bed early did sound appealing. I hadn't had my nap earlier as I had planned.

"Morelli has been spinning his wheels for a while. He first started working on this file about five weeks ago. He can wait another couple of days."

I smiled and changed my plans. Having a shower, changing into Ranger's clothes, eating dessert and going to bed early sounded like the best idea of all.

"Have you been working out with Ranger gone?" asked Tank.

My smile fell. I hadn't been working out. I also hadn't been at the gun range, and somehow I thought that Tank already knew the answer to that question. "I'll stretch before I have my shower", I said.

Tank laughed. "You'd be better off going for a run for fifteen minutes or half an hour to get the squirrellies out before your shower."

I laughed. Like that was going to happen. I didn't know how to tell him, but my squirrellies wanted to go to sleep and were disappointed because my nuts weren't there.


	8. Chapter 8

I went upstairs, stood in the shower, and let the hot water soothe my tired muscles. My body was stiff from so much desk work that day, and as I thought about my upcoming day I thought I'd better warn Lula that I wouldn't be in and I wouldn't be skip tracing. Since the next day was Friday, I didn't expect that I would be back in to the bonds office until Monday. I hoped to finish off the Bordin file on the weekend, but I thought I might be a little ambitious about that plan. Even so, I thought I would push it as hard as I could to get as much as I could get done by Monday. I had three outstanding skips to chase for Vinnie, and I couldn't let too much time go by before I started to find them. If I didn't get a move on, Vinnie would call in Joyce Barnhardt to do the chasing, and I would do just about anything to ensure that nothing good came to her life.

Joyce had been my childhood nemesis ever since I could remember. She was the kind of person who would trip you as you were walking by, the kind of person that spat in your food at lunch, the kind of person who stole your crayons – and your husband. There had always been an unfriendly competition between the two of us, but when I found her boinking my husband of three months, that competition turned nasty. For the few months afterwards, I told everyone what she had done. I turned people against her, and she tried to turn people against me. Keeping up that level of upset was exhausting, however, so I found, for my own sense of peace, that it was better for me to avoid her and simmer in silence. She didn't do her part in avoiding me, however. She had frequently tried to boink Morelli when I was dating him. She tried to steal my skips by boinking Vinnie. She had come on to Ranger a few times as well, but he had consistently told her that he wasn't interested. I thought he could be my hero for just that reason alone.

Lula and I might look like Lucy and Ethyl when we were retrieving skips, but at least we looked like bounty hunters. Now that we were wearing our bulletproof vests when we went out on our retrievals, we looked professional in our attire and we were, most of the time, professional in our handling of the skips, the odd uncalled-for shackling of felons notwithstanding. Ranger told me that we were good bounty hunters. We just took a few more tries to capture people than he would. We still got the job done.

Joyce didn't look like a real bounty hunter and had never caught a skip. She did like to run around in skin-tight black leather in a look that was part Dog the Bounty Hunter and part dominatrix, with her gun out yelling 'freeze'. She was inept and treated the job more as a joke than anything else, and in her incompetence let all her skips run away. Skips that I then had to go out and catch. She didn't accomplish anything other than to make it more difficult for me to go around and clean up her mess. She had slept her way into the ability to chase skips a few times and the results had always been disastrous. Only once had she been paid the bounty, and that was only because I caught the person for her. That still burned me. It had been for a high bond.

So, between our difficult past and Joyce's tendency to make bounty hunting a laughingstock profession, I didn't have much love or respect for her. She had caused me all sorts of problems, but she had never experienced any of those sorts of problems herself. While I would love to see her lose for once, I would be happy if she just didn't win.

So, needless to say, I didn't want to take the chance that Vinnie would give my skips to Joyce. Since I'd rather poke my eyes out with a sharp stick, I thought that I'd better plan on spending the day at the bonds office on Monday.

When I was lobster-red and wrinkly from the hot water, I stepped out of the shower and toweled off. I combed out my wet hair, dressed in some of Ranger's clothes, and padded through to the kitchen. I refreshed my hamster's water and filled Rex's dish with hamster crunchies. Rex ran out of his igloo and stood at the side of the cage, up on his hind legs, staring at me, eyes beady, whiskers quivering in excitement. "Hey, Rex", I said. "How are you doing?" I reached in and smoothed his soft fur along his back. His nose vibrated with excitement. He knew a treat was coming.

Who was I to disappoint him? I went to my junk food cupboard and removed the raisin package, took a raisin out of the bag and put it in Rex's cage. Like me, Rex had ignored the crunchies but he got quite animated at seeing the raisin. He ran over to his food dish and stuffed the raisin in his cheek pouch, turned around and disappeared into his igloo hidey hole. That was the end to my interaction with my hamster.

As I decided that Rex shouldn't get all the treats, I opened the fridge. Ella had left a parfait glass of chocolate mousse garnished with fresh raspberries, covered with plastic wrap. I smiled. She had left me an especially large portion of dessert.

I took the dessert out of the fridge, removed the plastic wrap, and got a spoon out of the drawer. I carried the treat through to the den and settled on the sofa. I turned on an episode of some reality show and settled down to eat my dessert. By the end of the dessert I realized that I had no clue as to what was going on in the show that I was watching. I did, however, have a great appreciation for the chocolate mousse that Ella had left me.

I sent a text to Ella thanking her for dessert, another to Lula about not being in until Monday, turned off the television and put my dirty dishes in the dishwasher, brushed my teeth and finished in the washroom, and climbed into bed. I pulled Ranger's pillow into my chest and buried my nose into the fabric. I could smell Ranger's scent, a combination of his signature scent of Bulgari Green and him, and I could feel my heart rate settle.

My phone rang, and I rolled over and picked it up and put it on speakerphone. "Hey", I said.

"Babe."

"How are you?"

"Ready to come home. How are you?"

"Ready to have you come home."

"How is the research going on Morelli's project?"

"I found out lots of stuff, but mainly what I've found out is that there needs to be an investigation into the bakery and the paper plant. I've identified what they need to look at – thousand-gallon tanks that I believe contain a mixture of human body parts and lye. The lye is legitimately used in their processes, but it would be the perfect place to dispose a body. Morelli needs to remove the lye and analyze it for tissue contamination."

"Do you believe that they are disposing body parts in the lye that is used in their cooking process?"

"There's a little Mabel in your bagel? Yes, or there's a little Peter in your paper. I don't know which of the facilities the bodies are found in, but that's what I believe. However, it is instinct that is telling me that rather than concrete information. I know I may never eat a bagel again, and I know that I was staring at our paper today to see if I could see traces of tissue contamination in the finish. It makes me shudder just thinking of it."

Ranger laughed.

"I have identified a number of people important to Luigi and Lorenzo. I've traced financials and social media. All I have left to do is the analysis on Robert Bianchi and Rebecca Bianchi."

"Who are they?"

"Robert is Luigi's and Lorenzo's brother-in-law and is the third owner to the three businesses. Rebecca is his daughter and is their only niece. They have no nephews. There is something about Rebecca that is telling me that she should be looked at more intently. I don't know what it is about her, but I need to look at her more closely."

"If you think she should be looked into more closely, then you should look into her more closely. Trust your instincts, babe."

"I don't know the members of the Mafia well enough to know if they have been hanging around with the mob, but I have identified a number of people who have appeared several times on Rebecca's feed when her uncles are in the pictures. If Morelli picks which of those look interesting, I'll investigate them further."

"Are you around the office tomorrow?"

"I am. I was going to work late this evening, but Tank caught me yawning and told me that Morelli has been spinning his wheels on this for the last five weeks and could spin his wheels a day longer so that I could rest."

"Have you not been resting?"

"I find that, when you are gone, time doesn't drag as much if I pack my days and nights with work. I've worked seventy hours since you left on Sunday, and it's only Thursday."

"Don't let yourself get run down again, babe. It wasn't that long ago that I remember you falling asleep standing up." I had been so tired that, when we were taking the elevator up from the fifth floor to the seventh, I had cuddled into Ranger for a hug and fell asleep, standing up, in his arms. Ranger had to carry me to bed.

"I know, but I find that if I exhaust myself I will fall asleep when I go to bed. If I don't exhaust myself, I miss you too much to fall asleep."

"I miss you too, babe."

"How is it going there?"

"The group is good and has a lot of potential, but they need to have their rough edges all smoothed out. They aren't working well as a team yet."

"Does this mean that you'll have to go down again sooner?"

"No. I'll write up my findings and submit my report to the unit commander. It will be up to him to smooth those edges before I come back for the evaluation of the recruits. I'll have to work this weekend a bit. I'll have to write up my report and send it off by about mid-afternoon on Sunday. I know I haven't seen you this week, but I'd prefer to come home as soon as I can and write my report from the office rather than stay here longer and submit the report in person. I find I don't sleep well without you there. It will take me about two hours this weekend to do the work."

"That's fine. I have to go out with Lula on Monday before Vinnie hands my files over to Joyce, and I want to get Bordin's research done before then. I'll be working both days on the weekend."

"Are we going to your parents' for dinner on Sunday?"

"I'm sure they would like that. Are you sure that you're up for having dinner with my parents after having had lunch with them last week?"

"Why? Because your grandmother shot Rex? I think I can handle that."

"I actually meant after my grandmother decided that her life's ambition was to become a hooker."

"As long as she doesn't practice her wares on me, we should be okay."

I laughed. "Luckily, standing out in the sleet and trying to get people interested in her wares, without success, seems to have waylaid her plans to become a hooker. My mother has been grateful."

"If I had to stand out in the sleet for hours I wouldn't want to be a hooker either", said Ranger.

"Yes, but the difference is that my grandmother wasn't able to generate any interest in her seventy-year old body. You, however, would have a lot of interest in yours." Ranger laughed. "I would hire you if I saw you in the street", I said.

Ranger laughed again. "Have you ever hired anyone?" he said.

"No, but for you I'd make an exception." I paused. "I love you."

Ranger's voice went soft and quiet as he said, "I love you too, babe. I'll be home early on Saturday morning. My flight doesn't go out until eight-thirty at night and it's a six-hour flight. By the time I travel in from Newark, I won't be home until about five-thirty. Since I'll be flying all night, I'll want to come to bed when I get in."

"I will probably be in bed when you get here."

"I like the idea that you'll be all warm and cuddly and waiting for me."

"I like the idea of you joining me in bed."

"I should let you go. It's getting late. What are you doing now?"

"I just got into bed and I'm ready to dream about you."

"Then I'll let you go. Have a good sleep, babe."

With another 'I love you', I wished him a good sleep and hung up the phone. I rolled over, buried my nose in his pillow again, and fell asleep with a smile on my face.


	9. Chapter 9

_Thank you to everyone for your good wishes. My dad's temperature is being controlled by Tylenol now, and that's the first positive sign we've had in three days. Woo-hoo! I now have faith that things will improve. To celebrate, here's an extra chapter. Thanks to all of you for your support…_

_~ Sarah ~_

I slept through my alarm the next morning and woke up half an hour late. I called Ella to tell her that I was ready for my breakfast, and at the same time I requested no bagels. I explained why, and I don't think Ella was interested in serving bagels any more either. Her exact words were "euww", and she sounded a bit like she was gagging. I could totally empathize. She said that she would make me an egg and cheese and bacon sandwich on a breakfast biscuit. Since it sounded amazing, I hustled in the shower. By the time I was ready for the day, my breakfast was waiting on the counter, but it was still hot so I knew it hadn't been there long.

I was incredibly happy – Ranger would be there by the time I woke up the next morning, and didn't that give me a lift in the day? After eating my bacon breakfast sandwich, I strapped on my gun and floated down to my office, opened it up, and poured myself a coffee in the break room. I walked back to my desk, ready to go for the day.

I opened up the report and added an 'Avenues to Explore' section at the end. On it I put the bullet point of calling another bagel bakery and asking them about their process and how they used the lye. I listed five phone numbers of other bagel companies. I could call them myself, but with Morelli's police connections, I thought he'd get more cooperation from the different bakeries. I did the same thing with the paper plant, and also gave contact information for five different manufacturers.

I then started reviewing Robert's information. He was the Chief Financial Officer for the three facilities. He lived here in Trenton in an average house in an average neighborhood, just outside the Burg and had moved here from living in Newark for the ten years previous. His wife died of cancer three months before. He looked like a bookkeeper, with glasses and a sandy comb-over. I looked, but I couldn't see a pocket protector for his pens. He'd had two speeding tickets in the last ten years, and he was close to his daughter. He also was earning an exceedingly high salary. There wasn't a lot to look at. I searched through the social media and picked out names of people that he associated with and crosschecked them with those on Luigi's and Lorenzo's and Rebecca's sites. I noted them as potential people that Morelli might want to research more fully.

I then turned to Rebecca. Her Facebook site said that she was a pharmaceutical representative, but she didn't earn a regular paycheck and didn't seem to have any paystubs for me to confirm her employment. She did have large cash deposits, but they were from Garbrec, not a pharmaceutical company. She lived in a nice apartment just outside the Burg. She drove a nice car that she paid for in cash. When she was in school, she had been head of the cheerleading squad and was voted the prom queen, and I growled. I didn't know what it was about Mafia princesses, but they were wildly successful.

And I called her a Mafia princess because – call it my Spidey sense tingling, call it intuition – I did believe that she was a member of the Mafia. I believed Luigi and Lorenzo and Robert were members of the Mafia. I believed the pharmaceuticals that Rebecca was selling were of the illegal variety. I believed Terry – they were trying to take over Trenton. And as much as I didn't like Terry, I knew it would be a bad thing for another branch of the Mafia to take over. Joe was right. Vito's family had developed a working relationship with the town and its townsfolk. It wouldn't be good for another group to horn in on the territory.

I added under 'Avenues to Explore' a list of companies that Garbrec serviced in their recycling program. I didn't have anything to base my hunch on, but I suspected that Garbrec was using their recycling program to distribute the drugs. It would explain why they were charging so much for their service. I also added that Morelli should get quotes from other recycling companies for the same service to judge whether my instinct, that their fees were covering more than simple recycling services, was correct. I suspected Rebecca was the sales person who set up the programs, and I suspected that Luigi and Lorenzo and Robert were at the top of the food chain. I detailed a number of people that had been identified through their various social media websites as being beneficial to do profiles on, people that might be involved in their branch of the mob, and I outlined my hypotheses. I finalized the report. By the time it was finished, there was a twenty-page summary and over two hundred pages of supporting documents. I sent it off to Morelli, Tank and Ranger, then shut down the file and stood and stretched. Lunch was only served from eleven-thirty to one-thirty and, since it was quarter after one, it was almost over. I realized that I had better hustle down to the break room if I wanted to get something to eat.

I got to the staff room and looked in the soup pot. There was only a little chicken noodle soup left, and I could understand why. Ella's chicken noodle soup was amazing. It was filled with chunks of chicken, carrots, peas, leeks and egg noodles, and she made it from scratch. She had made it at times for me in the past when I've been sick, and I always thought it was like having a warm hug in a bowl. In all honesty, I couldn't imagine why it wasn't completely gone.

I helped myself to the last of the soup and, keeping in the chicken theme, I selected a chicken and lettuce sandwich on herbed bread with mayo. Like all of Ella's food, it looked amazing. I sat and ate my soup and sandwich, said 'hi' to Ella as she came in to clean up from the lunch period, complimented her on the lunch, and added my dirty dishes to the bin to go into the dishwasher.

As I yawned and looked at the various drink choices to take back to my desk, I grabbed an apple juice. I remembered Ranger telling me once that apples worked as well as coffee at keeping one awake, and I hoped that apple juice worked as well as apples. It made sense to me that it would, but you never could tell. Food was tricky. After all, why was rice pudding bad for you? It was composed of rice, milk, raisins – all healthy foods. It didn't make sense to me. And pineapple upside down cake? It had flour and eggs and pineapple. See? Healthy.

Just in case the apple juice didn't work, I topped up my coffee and carried my juice and my coffee back to my desk. By the time I returned, Tank was waiting in my office.

"I got your report", he said. "You did a great job."

"Thanks, Tank", I said.

"I don't know if Morelli will want more research done into the other people that you have identified. How many hours have you worked on this?"

I thought for a minute. "Probably about twenty-four. I dropped all my other research to look at these four people. The only way that I'd be able to get more information would be for me to use Leo's skills and hack into their accounts."

"What does your instinct say?"

"Honestly? I think they are dirty but there is little concrete proof yet to base it on. I have identified several avenues for Morelli to explore that would provide that proof or, at least enough proof to justify a search warrant. The difficulty will be keeping the search a surprise. One of the people identified when I was doing Rebecca's search, a former love interest, is a cop, and I don't know how friendly they currently are. I thought Morelli would be able to find that information out by talking to him personally much easier than me searching through the cop's social media to find out the information."

The phone rang, and as Tank got up, I said, "it's Morelli." I put it on speakerphone as Tank sat down again. "Hey", I said, "Tank and I are here. Did you get the report?"

"Yeah. How certain are you that you have the right Rebecca Bianchi?"

"Very certain. The pictures on her social media match her DMV picture, which matches her passport photo and so on. Likewise, there are pictures of her with her uncles, and her uncles are tagged and identified and their pictures match their DMV and passport photos. There is no way I messed up and researched the wrong person."

"Fuck."

"Why?" 

"Because Rebecca is the same person as Becky."

I paused for a moment. "Your girlfriend, Becky?"

"Yes."

"Fuck."

"To make matters worse, I've been keeping her up to date on the progress of this case."

"Fuck."

"Morelli, why don't you come into the office and tell us what you've told Rebecca, and perhaps we can devise a game plan?" said Tank.

"I'll be there in about half an hour."

Morelli made it in twenty minutes. When I signed him in, his face was white and there were lines of strain bracketing his mouth. There was a tenseness around his shoulders as I gave him a hug. "I'm sorry", I said.

Morelli sighed. "Yeah, me too", he said. "I really liked her."

I led him to the elevator. It was waiting for us, and we took it up to the Operations floor. We walked down to Tank's office, but he was on the phone, so we continued on to the break room so that Morelli could get a coffee. We returned to my office, and Morelli looked around him as he sat down. "Your office is nice", he said.

I looked around myself. I was very happy with my office. Ranger had encouraged me to decorate it myself. The paint, of course, was the same pale taupe that was throughout the office spaces. Furniture was the same dark woods. But I had added a brushed stainless desk lamp with a white shade, a fake orchid that looked real in a milk glass vase, a brushed stainless pen cup that had a variety of highlighters, pens and pencils, and a brushed stainless steel tissue box holder in a trellis pattern that made my office look fancy. On the wall was a Parvez Taj print in creams and beiges and dark brown that Ranger had bought for me. For an ink blotter, I had a large calendar that I used to keep track of hours that I then used to create my timesheets. My office was clean and uncluttered.

"I like it", I said. "My apartment was me when it had all the rejects from friends' and family's lives. There was something soothing about using Uncle Gerald's old sofa and knowing that family members had used it beforehand. However, the last time my apartment was vandalized, all my furniture was trashed and my relatives didn't have any more old furniture to get rid of. I ended up going to the thrift store to outfit my place. This is the first space that I've decorated for me, the first place that I've started from scratch and put in just what I wanted. The only time I had come close to doing that in the past was when I married Dickie and we were setting up our house together. But even then, I did whatever Dickie wanted because he would otherwise lose his temper and I didn't want him to threaten to hit me again. Even at the beginning I knew that they weren't idle threats."

"Did you ever worry that I would hit you?" said Joe.

I smiled. "The first few times you yelled at me I was worried, but I quickly learned that you're too honorable a person to hit someone. You have a temper and you blow up at people, but the most that happens is that you yell. After the first couple of times when you yelled at me, I knew that you wouldn't hit me."

"Did Dickie hit you a lot?"

"No. Just the once."

"That was one time too many."

I smiled sadly. "That's so true."

"How do you feel now that he's in jail?"

"I'm pleased that he is too scared of the bookie to want to take his bail offer. I'm happy thinking that he's in jail, and I'm pleased that Rangeman was able to bilk him of some money prior to him being arrested. Ranger charged him fifty thousand as a retainer, a hundred thousand as an aggravation fee for the event that he didn't do what we told him, which would be returned to him if he did what he was supposed to – he didn't – and fifteen hundred dollars a day for the protection services. When the money came in from Dickie, Ranger kept the fifteen hundred dollars a day and gave me the hundred and fifty thousand dollars to cover the alimony that Dickie never paid me. Personally, I thought he should keep it for the pain and suffering he went through in dealing with Dickie, but he said the same thing about me, that I should keep it for the pain and suffering I went through as his spouse. I've never had so much money in my life before."

"What are you planning on doing with it?"

"Honestly? I'm going to be boring and put the money aside for the future. And I'm going to buy myself a really kick-ass pair of shoes."

"I'm glad that Ranger is taking care of you."

"So far, so good", I said.

"You seem happy and settled, more so than I think I've ever seen you before."

"I guess I am."

Morelli nodded. "I'm happy for you."

"Thanks, Joe." I looked up as Tank popped his head into my office and told us that he'd refill his cup of coffee and would be back in a minute or two.

A minute later, he walked into my office and sat down on the other guest chair. "Hey", he said. He turned to Morelli. "Talk to me."

"We have a problem. I looked over Stephanie's research, and it clearly identified Rebecca as being part of this new branch of the Mafia. I contacted Terry on my way here, and I am having her look at the people on Facebook. That's what she was planning on doing after she got off the phone with me. I should be getting a return call from her soon."

"What are you hoping Terry will tell you?" asked Tank.

"I'm hoping she'll tell me if she recognizes them or not. She wants us to capture and arrest these interlopers, but I think she has information that she isn't telling me. I don't get the feeling that they know who – other than Luigi and Lorenzo – are part of this new group."

Morelli's phone rang, and he said it was Terry. He answered, listened, and got off the phone seconds later. "Terry said that she didn't recognize anyone, and she'd like to see the research you did to identify people's names and locations. She hopes that sort of information will shake something loose."

"Are you sure that she wasn't just hoping that the TPD identifies the suspects and, when the suspects are identified, is planning on going in and personally eradicating the problem?" I said.

"Christ", said Joe. "The options are just getting worse."

Tank sighed. "Tell us about your relationship with Rebecca."

"I met Becky about six weeks ago at church. She was there mourning her mother, and I had been there because I couldn't handle any more of my mother and grandmother hounding me about not going. The first time I went, I saw her across the church. I went every day afterwards for the next week. She seemed like a nice girl, a bit reserved but friendly and warm and caring. About four weeks ago I started to date her. We've been out about once or twice a week since, always going to dinner in Newark as, according to the gossip, I am attached to Terry. We've also talked each night and have texted throughout the day as well. I probably talk to her either through text, email, phone or in person for about two hours a day."

"Tell us about the conversations that you've been having with Rebecca", said Tank.

"When I met her, I told her that I was a cop. She looked interested, so I told her a bit about the cases that I was working on. I didn't give her a lot of details, but as I knew her more I started to give her a more detailed overview of the cases. The one that she has been the most interested in is this one. Last night she wanted to know who my contact was in the mob, and I luckily didn't tell her Terry's name. However, when she asked me who was doing the research for me, I told her that you were doing it, Steph. I said that you were a very talented researcher and, if you didn't find out something, there was nothing there to find out."

I smiled. Yes, the ramifications of what Morelli was saying were horrible…but the part that I couldn't get away from was the concept that Morelli thought that I was good at something outside the bedroom. For so long I thought Morelli thought of me as a useless twit professionally that it was nice to hear him comment positively upon something I had done. I knew that he respected me as a person. He thought that I was a good person, a valuable person. It was nice to hear respect in his voice for what I could do professionally as well.

Tank sat forward on his chair. "So Stephanie is potentially in danger because of this Rebecca?"

"That's true", said Joe.

"Shit", said Tank. "It's a good thing that Ranger is coming home tonight."

"Did you give a last name? After all, there are a lot of Stephanies in this world", I said.

"I said you were my former girlfriend, so it wouldn't be difficult for her to find out your last name."

"But did you tell her where I was living now?"

"No, I didn't. If she searched for you, she would find your apartment but she wouldn't find you personally."

"So that's good, right? She won't be able to find me. And because I am still driving a Rangeman vehicle, I won't be able to be identified by the car that I am driving."

"I admire your optimism, cupcake", said Morelli with a grimace. "I have just found little to be optimistic about in the last couple of hours."

I smiled. "Look, what's done is done, and there is little that we can do about it. How do you think that you'd like to move forward on things?" My cell phone rang and I checked the screen. It was an unknown number, and I let it go to voicemail. Seconds later, the control room called. "Hey, what's up?" I said.

"Just checking to make sure that you're in the building", said Eduardo. "The control room has you located here."

"Yes, I'm here. Why is that important?" I said.

"The police scanner just had a call go out for all emergency services to be dispatched to your apartment building. We have a patrol team on route to get details."

"Keep us informed", said Tank.


	10. Chapter 10

_Something is wrong with my fanfiction site, and I cannot respond to reviews. I am reading them though, and appreciate every one of them. I'll sort it out hopefully tomorrow, but in the meantime I am posting another chapter to thank you for your regular responses._

_~ Sarah ~_

Morelli stood. "Something is telling me that the call that came through on the police scanner has something to do with your apartment. The timing is too coincidental. I had told Becky last night that I expected it would take you until Monday at least to complete the research."

"Steph has been working incredible hours on this because she knew you needed the information", said Tank.

"The only way we'd be able to get more information is if we hacked into their computer, and I don't have the skills to be able to do that."

"Since that is slightly illegal", said Tank with a smile, "I'm glad to hear that." I noticed that he didn't tell Morelli that we had someone on staff who could and periodically did do that sort of work for us. After all, why rock the boat? "Before you go, why doesn't Steph check that unknown number on her cell?" said Tank. "It would be good to know whether that was coincidental or not."

Morelli looked at me, and I accessed my voicemail to hear an unidentified woman. "Stephanie, I am calling to politely tell you that it is in your best interest to stop researching Garbrec. To show I mean business and to give you something else to do other than research the company, I will burn your apartment down. I hope you don't have any pets there." She hung up.

I looked at Joe. "I don't recognize the voice. Do you?"

"It's Becky", he said. "I guess that she's been talking to my mother and grandmother and thinks that we are no longer friendly and that I wouldn't hear the message that she left for you. We can capitalize on that."

"She also has no idea as to what Rangeman can do, by the sounds of it", said Tank. "We can capitalize on that as well." Tank stood. "Steph, you can travel to your building with me. I think it would be a good idea to not appear too friendly at the apartment building in case Becky is watching from somewhere. If she thinks you aren't friendly, she will be less likely to suspect that you are talking to each other. Morelli, when you talk to Becky you should say something like that bitch isn't able to get that research done like she promised, and you don't know when you'll get the information from her. I'm sure you can play it up so that it shows that you are angry at Steph at the same time as letting out the information that you don't have confidence in her abilities or the abilities of Rangeman to hire knowledgeable staff. Just keep us in the loop as to what you are saying, so that if Steph comes face to face with Rebecca she will be able to play her part."

"Sure thing", said Morelli. He turned to me. "I know you've been burning the midnight oil on this one, cupcake, and I just wanted to say how much I appreciate it. You did an incredible job on the research. It was thorough, well-documented, and easy to follow. I couldn't have done it myself. I am grateful to you."

I could feel my face get warm, and I smiled. "Thanks, Joe. That means a lot to me."

Tank led us from my office into the control room. "What's the situation?" he said.

Eduardo looked up. "There appears to be a fire in Stephanie's building. It's on the second floor, but the patrol guys that responded first don't know which apartment is Stephanie's. We have Hal and Hector on route to see if it is Stephanie's apartment."

"Judging by the phone call we got just before the call went out on the police scanner, it is arson and the apartment is Stephanie's. Keep tabs on what is happening and the three of us will go to see what is going on", said Tank.

"Yes, sir", said Eduardo.

Tank led us out of the control room and over to the elevators. Grim-faced, the three of us descended to the main floor. We said goodbye to Morelli and saw him walk down the street to where he parked his car, and Tank and I descended to the parking garage and walked over to Tank's car.

About ten minutes later, we arrived at my building. It had been a silent ride. Tank wasn't any chattier than Ranger and frequently got in touch with his Zen as he drove. While my instinct was to talk to him and shake him up a bit, I had learned from Ranger that the stillness was often the way he meditated, and it was through that meditation he both discovered his balance and focus, as well as had many of his more insightful moments. Since we could use all the insight we could get, I decided not to rattle Tank's cage. Personally, I got my insight when I slept and, if I didn't get insight, I at least woke up feeling more rested.

Tank and I parked down the street and walked up to the confusion. I looked around and mentally counted the other residents. It looked like everyone was there, but what did I know? It would be easy to miss one or two people in the melee.

Tank and I looked up at my apartment. There was a large hole in the living room window. Either a firebomb had been shot into my living room or the window had exploded from the heat. My bet was on a firebomb. Tank stood looking at the scene with his hands on his hips. He did not look happy.

I walked over to Mr. Wolenski and smiled at him. "Hey, chicky!" he said. "You don't even have to live here and you provide excitement to our lives." He looked at Tank. "Is this a new man? He looks like a good one. If you ever get tired of him, you know where to find me."

I smiled and looked at Tank. He flushed, and I bumped shoulders with him as I laughed. "He is a good one, Mr. Wolenski, but he would never be as good as you."

"Aww, shucks. You say the nicest things."

I sobered. "Did everyone get out alright?"

"As far as I can tell. Only your apartment was affected and it was called in by someone as soon as it was started, so the smoke damage to the rest of the building is minimal. The firefighters got here as people were all filing out. The city is sending a spare bus so that we can all get off our feet and in someplace dry and warm while we're waiting for permission to go back to our apartments. The firefighters have put out the fire and are now cleaning up the mess. They said that we should be allowed back into our apartments within the next two hours. They just want to make sure that the fire doesn't spontaneously start again."

"Okay. It's a nuisance, but as long as everyone is safe we can deal with the rest."

"What have you gotten yourself into?" he said. "Are you chasing another firebomber?"

"No, I was researching someone who doesn't want to be researched, and is making her wishes known."

"Well, you stick to your guns", said Mr. Wolenski. "If this is the sort of thing they do just because you ask questions, they obviously have something that they want to hide, and that thing that they want to hide could prove to be very interesting."

I smiled. "Yes, but I can't have the person threatening my friends here. It's not fair to all of you."

"Don't worry about us", said Mr. Wolenski. "This is more exciting than 'Days of our Lives'." I guess I didn't look convinced, because Mr. Wolenski smiled. "Look around, chicky. Does anyone look upset?"

I glanced around at all the familiar faces, and everyone seemed alert and excited and interested in what was going on. Mr. Wolenski was right. There was no one there who looked upset or angry about what had happened. I was once again grateful for the forgiving attitude of my fellow apartment dwellers.

The bus drove up to the apartment building, and people all filed into a line to board the bus. Tank went to the front of the line and helped all the elderly people onto the bus. By the time he had lifted all the older women and assisted all the men up the stairs, the weather was turning nasty. As the sleet started to fall, Tank bundled me into the bus. "It got here just in time", I said to him.

Tank looked grim. "We were lucky."

"It was also lucky that Rex wasn't in the apartment."

Tank gave a tight smile. "Rex is a very special hamster, but I don't really care about him compared to you or all the people who live in your building. I'm just glad that everyone was able to make it out of the building okay, and I'm even gladder that you were out of the building. Do you have to go out skip tracing this afternoon?"

"No. I have to pick up some files, but otherwise I don't have to go to the bonds office. The next time I'm scheduled to be out of Rangeman is Monday."

"We'll send Rangeman staff with you."

"I can't ask for you to do that."

"You aren't asking. I'm telling you that is what we're going to do."

I bit my lip.

"Is there a problem?"

"Yes."

"Care to share?"

I sighed. "One, Lula will lose her commission if she isn't my partner and she will be very unhappy – rightfully so, since she counts on her commission. Two, I hate being babysat. It makes me feel ineffective. Three, it takes a Rangeman staff off their duties and that's not fair. And four, I don't want to admit to Ranger that I muffed up again. He always has to bail me out of problems. I'd like, for once, to bail him out of his. Does he even know that there's a problem?"

"One, Lula will just have to deal with not going out on captures with you. Rangeman will only take a fifty percent commission so that you can still give Lula her ten percent and you still get your forty. And before you complain, that is what we're going to do. Ranger has already decreed it. Two, you aren't being babysat. You need someone who is skilled as your backup, someone who could protect you just as much as provide assistance in your captures. Lula is not that person. Three, it is entirely fair that we send a Rangeman staff with you. The whole money aspect aside, you are our team member. Do I need to remind you of our conversation about you being a member of our team?" I shook my head. "Good. And your last point, about Ranger, is also moot. Yes, he knows what is going on. That's who I was on the phone with when Morelli showed up at the office. He knows this isn't a result of a mistake you made. He is not angry at you. He's worried, but he's not angry. You helped him just as much when Julie was kidnapped. That time, it wasn't Ranger's fault but he needed help just as much as you need it now." Julie was Ranger's thirteen-year old daughter, and when she was eleven she had been kidnapped. I worked with Ranger to identify the felon and get him arrested. It had been a scary time in Ranger's life. "Let us help you, Steph. That's what teammates do."

I swallowed a couple more times and then smiled shakily. "Thanks, Tank."

He patted me awkwardly on the shoulder and turned back to look out the window of the bus. Sleet was coming down in a miserable mess, and Morelli looked like a drowned rat as he talked to the other officers. I felt bad for him. It had to be a real kick in the pants to find out that the girl that he really liked, the girl that he had started to date, was a member of the mob. And not only was she a member, she was part of the group that was killing the former mob members. It had to be a further kick in the pants that his girlfriend caused a fire in my apartment and potentially caused a problem for the other residents. I knew that he'd be upset about that. Morelli cared a lot about people. That was why he was a cop, and knowing that all those residents, many of them seniors who had health issues, were upset by what Becky did, would make him angry. His role in what happened wouldn't sit right with him. But above all that, I felt guilty. I was so happy with Ranger, and I wanted Morelli to be equally as happy. I didn't want to think of him regretting us breaking up. Morelli and I may not be dating each other any longer, but we were still good friends and still care about each other. He was worried about me. I could understand his fear. I was worried about him as well.


	11. Chapter 11

Tank and I waited until the residents were allowed back into their apartments before we left. By the time we were seeing the residents off the bus, we'd had three offers for dinner, five offers to keep their eye on my place, and four requests for me to move back in because it gave the residents something exciting to talk about.

Tank escorted me to his car, and he continually surveyed the environment as we walked. He was in full protection mode, and it made me feel a little more reassured that I would be okay. When we got to the bonds office, Lula was sleeping on her sofa and Connie was on the telephone calling upcoming felons and reminding them of their court dates. Connie waved to us as she talked into the phone, and Lula let out a loud snort.

A smile played around Tank's face. I looked at him in question. As Lula let out another snort, he said, "it's nice to know that some things never change." Tank knew Lula well. They had been engaged at one time in a move that had been engineered by Lula. They had been dating each other when Lula conned him into a proposal. Tank panicked. To calm himself down, he adopted three stray kittens. Lula was allergic to cats and gave him the ultimatum of her or the cats. The cats won in an event that Lula was still cranky about. You couldn't mention Tank's name to Lula without her taking her stun gun out of her purse and charging it up for blast off. On Tank's side, he was happy with his cats and was relieved to have had the narrow escape. I don't know if he had dated since. I had never asked, and Tank had never volunteered the information.

Connie hung up the phone and nodded her head at Lula. "Please tell me that you're taking her out of the office skip tracing this afternoon."

"I'm sorry", I said. "We're just picking up case files."

"She's driving me nuts. She was out on a date last night, and she didn't get any sleep. She's spent most of the day snoring, and I have to say that it is quite distracting. I'm having trouble hearing on the phone, and I've had more than one felon ask me what the racket is in the background. One person asked me if I was in the middle of a construction zone, another asked me if I was in a lumberyard, and the third asked me whether I wanted them to phone emergency services on my behalf. Apparently he thought a monster was attacking me."

"I can see all those scenarios except the monster", I said.

"I can see the monster", said Tank.

"The person who said that was a teenager who had been arrested for stealing a collection of comic books. I think he'd been doing too much reading about superheroes, and he envisioned himself as a superhero saving me from the villain."

I laughed and picked up my files. "Tell Lula that I won't be going out with her on Monday. I'll have a Rangeman staff member with me instead."

"Sure. Everything okay?"

"I was doing some research for Morelli, and the girl that he was dating turned out to be a member of the branch of the mob that is trying to take over Trenton. Unfortunately, he told her that I was doing the research, and she firebombed my apartment as a warning not to talk. We've just come from my building."

"Was everyone okay?"

"Everyone was fine. There will be soggy floors in the hallways, but the building superintendent has assured me that his vacuum cleaner is powerful and able to vacuum both wet and dry carpets. He said he got it two firebombings ago. Emergency services were called out as soon as the firebombing happened, so the damage was contained within my apartment. But Tank is trying to be careful and is being proactive."

Lula gave a very loud snort, sat up straight, and looked around her in a panic. "What?" she said. "What's happening? Did someone get shot? Oh my God! Call emergency services!"

"No one got shot", said Connie.

"What was that noise then?" She noticed Tank standing behind me. "Oh, it's you." I glared at her when she reached for her stun gun and was glad that she wasn't wearing her utility belt in the office. Tank would have been going down for sure if she had. He was well within tagging distance.

"That was you snoring. You snored so loud you woke yourself up", said Connie.

"I don't snore", said Lula. Tank choked, and Lula turned squinty eyes on him. "If you were a gentleman, you'd agree with me."

"I'm not saying anything, for or against you", said Tank with a smile.

I laughed and shook my head as Lula continued to glare at him, and turned to Connie. "Has Harry the Hammer been found yet?"

"No, but Lucille finally convinced her mother to get Morelli involved. Vinnie should be back from vising his mother-in-law any minute, actually. He was hoping to ask her where the will was and to tell her that he should take over the role of managing the bonds office."

"I thought he already managed the bonds office", said Tank.

"He does", said Connie, "but currently every major decision he makes, including and maybe especially financial decisions, has to be reviewed by Harry before he is allowed to implement it. The only decisions he is allowed to make prior to approval by Harry are the people he writes bond for. With owning the office again, he'll be able to make decisions on the fly and, perhaps most importantly, he will be able to supplement his online gambling with money from the company."

Vinnie came slamming into the office. "Fucking asshole", he said.

"What happened?" asked Connie.

"He didn't name me in his will. The fucker promised me that he'd name me in his will, and he didn't do it."

"So what happens if Harry doesn't come back?" I said.

"Lucille inherits the bonds office. I mean, what does she know about running a bonds office?"

"What did Harry know?"

"Harry knows crime. He knows criminals. He might not know how to write bond", Vinnie said, "but he brought a lot of business into the office."

"So Lucille will run the office?"

"Harry knew that I had been responsible for the bonds office for a long time. He was content to let me do my thing. Yes, we'd talk every week about what was going on and he wanted me to run any major decisions past him, but he didn't keep a close eye on things. I mean, I could still gamble and watch porn and have Mistress Melody visit, and he didn't care about that sort of thing. Of course, he didn't even know that it was going on, since he didn't keep that close an eye on stuff. As long as I didn't dip into the company funds, he was happy. But Lucille said that she'd like her own office here, and that she'd like to take more of an active role in managing the office than her father had. She wants to come in every day. It will be a fucking disaster."

"I'm sure Harry will show up", I said. I wasn't sure of that at all, but I didn't want to tell Vinnie that. He was already frantic enough.

"I don't know where that fucker is, but I swear I'll kill him myself if he doesn't show up soon."

"Have a coffee, look at some porn on the computer and calm down", said Connie. "It will all turn out okay."

"Why? Do you know something that I don't? Do you know where Harry is?"

"No", said Connie. "I wish I did. There are all sorts of people who are disappearing right now, and the family is worried. But I have faith it will all turn out all right."

"Who is disappearing?" said Vinnie.

"Other members of the family."

"So Harry could have been offed because they were members of the mob?" said Vinnie. Tears came to Connie's eyes.

"We don't know that for sure", I said. "Perhaps there is a mob convention somewhere and people are going to that."

"Un-hunh", said Vinnie. "Is that the best you can do?"

I thought for a moment. "Yup", I said. "I seem to be out of bullshit right now." I turned to Connie. "We'll try our best to find him."

"Thanks, Steph. That makes me feel better knowing that you and Morelli are looking for him."

Vinnie nodded. "You need to find that fucker so that I can kill him."

I picked up my new files. "I'll do my best."

"And you need to catch up on capturing skips", said Vinnie. "We have four outstanding now, and judging by the people we have coming up next week, I am sure we'll have more soon."

"Okay." I turned to Tank. "Is it time to go?"

Tank nodded.

I turned to Lula. "I won't be skip chasing with you on Monday, but I will still be paying you your ten percent. Rangeman will be going out with me."

"That makes me feel better", said Vinnie.

"Hey!" said Lula. "Steph and I get the skips. We get the job done." She glared at Tank. "Was that a snigger? I'm sure I heard a snigger there."

"Not from me", said Tank.

"What's going on that you can't go out to capture skips on Monday?" said Lula.

"It's a secret, so please done tell anyone." Lula and Vinnie sat forward, their noses quivering in excitement. They looked like Rex when I fed him a raisin. When I got Lula's and Vinnie's agreement, I said, "certain members of the mob are targeting other members of the mob in a bid for leadership. I was doing some research into them for Morelli, and the members of the mob found out. They threatened me by phone today just before they firebombed my apartment. Tank is concerned about my safety."

"What does Ranger say?" said Vinnie.

"He's in the wind right now", I said. "I haven't spoken to him."

"Hunh", said Lula. "Do you know where he is? Are you sure that Ranger wasn't taken by the mob as well?" Tank snorted.

"I'm positive", I said. "Tank was talking to him this afternoon."

"I read about a coup in Africa somewhere. Is he in Africa?"

"I doubt it", I said. "I think he's in Paris."

"Paris? As him to bring you back some perfume."

"I don't want him to bring me back anything."

"I would have said wine, but who wants to drink some old, fermented grape juice? Who wants grape juice anyway? Everybody knows that fruit punch is the only juice to have."

"Most of the time fruit punch isn't even real juice", said Tank. "Most of the time it is a flavored sugar drink."

"Hunh", said Lula. "What do you know?" She reached down at her side again and, when she remembered that she wasn't wearing her stun gun, she reached for her purse.

I thought that it would be a good idea to escape. "We've got to go", I said. "I'm sure Tank has work piling up at the office, and I know I do. I hope you have a good weekend." I put my files in my bag, waved at everyone, and led Tank from the office.

As we drove away, I turned to Tank. "You know that, whenever Lula sees you, she wants to stun you. If I were you, I'd stand far, far away from her."

"I wondered if that was what she was thinking. When I saw her reach for her purse, I wasn't sure whether she was reaching for her stun gun or her gun."

"I'm sure either would do for her."

Tank laughed. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?"

"Exactly."

"Good to know."


	12. Chapter 12

Morelli called me at dinner. "How are you doing?" I said.

"It's exhausting pretending to be mad at you", he said. "I cancelled my plans with Becky for the weekend. I told her that I had work piling up to my ears with these mob murders and I couldn't get my head above water."

"I really am sorry."

"It's not your fault. I'm just glad to know now, just a month into our relationship, rather than find out a year in."

"Did Bob like her?"

"Yeah, he did. Apparently his built-in bullshit-meter was broken as well." He sounded disgusted and disillusioned, and my heart went out to him.

"If it wasn't such a bad idea for me to be seen with you, I'd come to your house for dinner and a visit. We didn't do lunch together this week. I've been too snowed under."

"Are you still snowed under?"

"Yes and no. I still have that large file that I've been researching, and I'm only just over half done. I'll be working both days this weekend on it. I also have about four skips to catch up on retrieving, but Rangeman is sending a patrol guy out to protect me and help me on Monday, so I'm not worried about that quite so much. Ranger isn't putting any pressure on me to get the large file done, but I don't like taking a lot of time to do the searches as the research is boring and puts me to sleep."

"What are you researching?"

"Ranger signed on a big client and, because they were just signed on, we are still in the process of looking into the past of each of the employees. We research each employee carefully to determine if they are a security risk. In the vast majority of cases, there is little to find, and that's where it gets boring. It's better if there is something I can sink my teeth into."

"You are so vivacious and people-oriented that I have a hard time imagining you being good at research, but what you produced for me on the Vistonni family was a superior quality. I know that I could never have gotten as much information as you did, and I don't know another person who could have."

"A lot of that is the result of In-Spect, our in-house search engine. I just took the results of that and did some more investigation."

"I looked at the supporting documentation. Yes, In-Spect is invasive. But you took that information and went a lot further, took where In-Spect found information and pushed the envelope a bit. Our investigation wouldn't be nearly as far along as it is if it weren't for you."

"I don't often do research that detailed. I generally just use In-Spect to do my research but, if In-Spect finds something concerning, I will delve into it much like I did for Luigi, Lorenzo, Robert and Rebecca. But now you understand why research takes so long. For the new company that I am researching, there are over two hundred names to look into. But while it took me about twenty-four hours to do your research, when I just use In-Spect and the file doesn't turn up anything, it only takes me about half an hour to do the search. Ten minutes for In-Spect to do its thing, ten minutes for me to go over the search results, and ten minutes to write up a summary report and link the line items to results in the search. It's time consuming, and Leo is currently writing another search engine that hopefully speeds up the report writing. Luckily, I can multitask and have In-Spect work on a search while I do the summary report for the previous person I searched. It speeds up the process a bit when there is less lag time and cuts that half hour down to twenty minutes."

"If you have over two hundred employees, you have about seventy hours of work. Do you have time for that?"

"It's actually more, since half an hour is an average time for a search result that comes up with nothing to report. The problem is that we are signing companies on fast. People like the services we offer and, speaking biasedly, we offer the most comprehensive service around. Our services aren't cheap, but they are better than what is offered by any other company. People are flocking to us."

"How many clients do you have?"

"I don't know. I do know that Ranger went through a hiring drive during the summer, and it looks like he might have to hire more people again before Christmas. I was talking to Miguel the other day about how our building is starting to burst at the seams. He suggested building another office next door on the empty lot and joining the two buildings."

"Do you think that is something that Ranger will want to do?"

"I don't know. It's a possibility that I'll mention to him. We are starting to struggle with continuing to provide a good service, just because we are growing so rapidly."

"I'm glad it's working out for Ranger."

"I am too. The company earns a lot of money, but he is generous with staff. People are generally happy and morale is good. We work well as a team."

"Do you like it more than being a lingerie buyer?"

"I liked being a lingerie buyer alright, but it was just a job in many ways. I had gone into it thinking of the free samples that I would get, but those samples just didn't happen. I didn't even get a discount on the lingerie, which my grandmother was very disappointed in. It paid the bills, but it didn't excite me. The combination of being a bounty hunter and a researcher is the best job for me. It allows me to satisfy my curiosity and nosiness through my research job, while still providing the excitement and people skills and variety through being a bounty hunter. I like it."

"Are you still working incredible hours? I know a few months ago Ranger said you were working hundred-hour workweeks."

"It's not so bad now that I got caught up on skips. When I was working hundred-hour work weeks, I had about fifteen skips to capture as well as starting up a new company and keeping up to the Sales research. I currently only have four skips, all of which I hope to capture on Monday, and one new company to research."

"Where is Ranger?"

"In the wind."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"He's a security specialist. What do you think it means?"

"Do you know where he is?"

"Yes. He's on a plane home right now."

There was a pause. "What time will he get in?"

I smiled. I knew that Morelli was trying to determine where Ranger was by the amount of time it took him to fly home. "I don't know. After I go to sleep", I said.

Morelli sighed. "Your grandmother told me that she and your mother went to Ranger's for lunch the other day. I ran into them at Giovichinni's on Monday."

"Oh, God. I told them that it was a secret."

"Your grandmother looked like she was bursting to tell someone."

"Did she give details out about his apartment?"

"No. I asked for details, but she wouldn't tell me."

"Thank God for small mercies. Did she tell you about shooting Rex?"

"What? Is Rex okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine, but it was tense hour while we got it all sorted out. Ranger had come in for lunch and took off his gun belt and put it on the counter near Rex. Grandma got up and went for some water. There's an ice and water dispenser on the fridge, and she was fascinated with it. She liked getting water for everybody. So to divert her from her pitch to get hired by Ranger, I sent her into the kitchen to get water. When she was in there, she helped herself to a little look-see of Ranger's gun and, when she was looking at it, we startled her. She squeezed the trigger and the gun went off and Rex was shot. Luckily, the glass of the cage slowed the bullet, and his soup can hidey-hole stopped it. However, Rex was trapped inside his soup can for a while before we could get him free."

"I'm glad that everyone was okay."

"Me, too."

"Your grandmother wanted to get hired on by Ranger?"

"She was on a kick to get a job. She went through all sorts of possible jobs but, when Ranger didn't allow her to work as a receptionist she thought that she would be a good 'ho."

Morelli laughed. "What happened with that?"

"She tried it out and found that no one stopped to hire her, even though she had a sign out offering sex for free. I think she was a little offended."

"Does she still want a job?"

"I don't know. She didn't mention it when I was there this week. I'm sure, if she does, that I will hear about it when we go for dinner on Sunday."

"Has your mother started hounding Ranger for kids yet?"

"Of course. That goes without saying."

"What does he say?"

"He says that he already has a child and he doesn't particularly want another. My mother is on a new kick to invite Julie up for a weekend. She wants to be a step-grandmother. You know my mom. Family is everything to her, and the more the merrier."

"So is Ranger inviting her up for Thanksgiving?"

"He is. Normally he spends Thanksgiving with Julie in Newark with his parents, Julie spends Christmas with her mother and stepfather, and Ranger goes down to Florida for Easter. This year, however, Julie is taking the day off school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and is flying up here. The three of us are spending Thanksgiving with Ranger's family, and we are staying overnight in Newark so that the family has more time with Julie. Saturday, Ranger and I are taking Julie shopping for Ranger's family so that she can buy them Christmas gifts and doesn't have to ship them up. On the Saturday night, we'll be going to my family's for dinner, and Julie will be flying home on the Sunday. This will be the first time that she'll have seen Ranger's apartment."

"She hasn't seen his apartment?"

"No. Up until last week, the only people who have seen his apartment were Ella, Tank, Ranger and me. Ranger likes his privacy and he likes having a safe and secure place where he doesn't have to watch his back."

"But now he's letting people into his apartment?"

"A limited number of people. He says that it is my home too, and so we should invite some people to see our place. We had my mother and grandmother one day for lunch last week, and Connie and Lula another day for lunch. Now we'll be inviting Julie, and around Christmas we are planning on inviting Ranger's family. We're slowly inviting people into Ranger's life in a way that he still feels secure. I think though, after Ranger's family comes, that will be the last of us inviting people over. We are hoping that the visits will appease people's curiosity."

"So I won't get a tour?"

I laughed. "Don't take offense. Neither will Ranger's staff. But while you don't get to see Ranger's apartment, you do get to see his offices, and that is something that anyone who sees his apartment doesn't get to see, much to Lula's disappointment. She is desperate to see his offices."

"What was her reaction to seeing the building and his apartment?"

I laughed again. "She was disappointed that there was no elevator muzak."


	13. Chapter 13

The mattress dipped around five thirty in the morning, and Ranger carefully pried his pillow out of my arms. I had fallen asleep with my nose buried in it so that I could smell his scent. As he took his pillow back, I sleepily opened my eyes and smiled at him. "Hey", I said.

He dropped a kiss on my nose. "Babe."

"I'm glad you're home." I inspected his face. He looked exhausted.

He kissed me deeply. "I'm too tired to do anything", he said. "I've been up for over twenty-four hours. Give me four hours of sleep and then I'll be ready to go."

"That's okay", I said. "I'm still not awake myself." I kissed his pecs, and he flipped me over until we were spooning, my back to his front. His arm fell over my waist and his hand came up and rested on my breast.

He gave a sigh of contentment. "This is what I missed all week long", he said. "I forget how hard it is to live without you now, and then I have to go away and I remember all over again. I don't like it much."

I smiled sleepily. "I missed you too", I said. "I love you."

"Love you too, babe." He kissed me on the back of my head and seconds later his breath evened out into sleep. I followed him shortly afterwards.

At eleven o'clock, I woke up for the day. My head was pillowed on Ranger's chest as he cuddled me. He periodically gave me a kiss, and he wrapped one of my curls around his finger, unwound it, then wrapped it around his finger again. I turned my head and kissed his chest, and he nuzzled the top of my head with his nose. "Good morning", I said in a whisper. I didn't want to violently break Ranger's tender and introspective mood by speaking loudly. "Did you sleep? What time did you wake up?"

"I woke up half an hour ago. I've just been enjoying the chance to hold you." He smiled. "I liked the fact that you went to bed without clothes on. It was very efficient of you."

"I learned as a child that it always paid to be prepared."

"You were a girl scout?"

"No, but I dated a boy scout once. Isn't that the same thing?"

Ranger laughed quietly. "That's okay, babe. I wasn't a boy scout either."

"Too bad. You would have been a good one."

"Now, maybe. As a kid, not so much."

"You would have been a cute kid."

"I was a different kid. I was more like Roberto than I was like Carlos, but I tended to get into fights and take offense to people calling me small. While I was serious like Roberto, I tended to shoot off my mouth. I wasn't a naturally happy child like Carlos." Roberto and Carlos were two of Ranger's nephews. Roberto was quiet and listened well, was serious in nature and thought a lot about his actions. Carlos was more rambunctious and filled with energy. I had met them both for the first time just a few months before. They were good kids who worshiped Ranger. Personally I thought that they couldn't have picked someone better to revere.

"I was more like Carlos", I said. "I was always getting into trouble."

"Yes, but it wasn't serious trouble and you didn't do anything seriously wrong. It wasn't like me jacking a car."

"You were just a kid."

"I was a kid who should have known better. It wasn't like I came from a bad family. My parents loved me a lot, supported me and tried to guide me."

"Yes, but you had gotten involved with a bad group of friends."

"I was addicted to the rush of knowing that I was doing something bad and getting away with it – until I no longer got away with it."

"You recovered when you moved down to Florida?"

"My uncle was great", he said. "I lived with my uncle and my aunt and my grandmother. My grandmother was the person who took care of me throughout the day. She was a little like Grandma Bella." I shuddered. Grandma Bella was Morelli's grandmother. She was a strong woman who had a rigid view of how the world should work, had definite protective feelings for her grandkids, and anyone who crossed either of those things was cursed. Over the years, I had often not conformed to her view of how I should act and, as such, I had just as frequently been cursed. Unfortunately for me, I had found that her curses worked. "My family believed in me. My grandmother was there to make sure I did my homework and my chores, and provided the daily discipline that I needed until I developed my own internal self-discipline. She died about the same time as I joined the army. Her last words to me were that she was proud of me."

"I can see why she was. You may have had a rocky period in your life, but you are a good man."

"My uncle used to tell me that I was always a good man. I just needed the right circumstances in my life to reveal it."

"Your uncle is smart."

"I'm looking forward to having you meet everybody. I emailed with Rachel while I was away." Rachel was his ex and Julie's mother. "She said that Julie is looking forward to coming and thanked me for inviting Julie to our apartment. She said that Julie was excited to see the place, and that it meant a lot to her that we wanted her here. Rachel said that Julie had taken offense to the fact that she had never seen my home. She knew that was unusual for a child to never see where her father lived."

"I can understand that. You may not be close to Julie, but you are still her dad."

"I know. I never thought that she would feel unworthy though, just because I didn't invite her to the house."

"I know that wasn't your intent, but I can see why it happened."

"I guess I can as well. I have just been trying so hard to keep my personal life private that I've been shutting out the people that matter at the same time. I didn't even know that I was doing it."

"I know. You hold yourself as an island."

"You are forming the bridge from my island to the mainland. It feels good. Thank you."

I kissed him again on his pecs.

"Do you mind the constraints associated with living with me? After all, even if I have opened up my life quite a bit, it is still very private compared to most people's lives."

"No, it's good. I appreciate that you don't mind me having people into the apartment every now and then, but generally I don't mind the constraints and I understand why they are there."

"I talked to my mother on the phone while I was away. I asked her whether the immediate family would be interested in coming for dinner over the Christmas holidays. I know that we talked about that."

"That would be fun."

"My mother started to cry."

"Why?"

"She said that she thought she would never see where I lived, and she had wanted to for so long. I didn't know that before. She had never mentioned it to me."

"I think she didn't want to put any pressure on you."

"I know."

"If you had known, would you have invited them?"

"Probably not. I was so focused on keeping them safe that I was scared to invite them into my life more than I had."

"If your family knows to keep your apartment a secret, and they do, what is the danger? I mean, how will other people know that the people walking into the building are here to visit you?"

"I know. That's the realization that I am coming to. I care deeply about my family and have been overprotective of them, but perhaps I've been silly about it. I didn't know that I was hurting people in trying to keep them separate from my professional life."

I kissed his pecs again. "You're changing things now. There is no point having regrets when you have the power of change."

"That's what my uncle used to tell me. You can learn from the past, but it wasn't what happened in the past that mattered. It is only what happens in the present that is of significance. He told me that only I had the power to turn my life around. The three of them, my Uncle Alejandro, my Aunt Tia, and my grandmother were a huge support for me. I wouldn't have had the confidence to turn my life around if I hadn't had their support. I knew that I had fucked up, I was deeply ashamed of what I'd done, and my self-esteem had taken a hit. I don't know where I'd be without them."

"You were lucky that you had them in your life. Not every child is as lucky."

"That's true. I've been very lucky in my life. Lucky in having the family that I do, lucky in my career and perhaps more importantly, lucky in having you in my life. I have loved you for so long, and I can still hardly believe my good fortune that you have moved in with me."

"I've loved you for a long time as well. I just had to get through a lot of shit in my head before I could commit to you."

"I know."

"I'm sorry."

"You're here now. That's all that matters." He angled down and kissed the top of my head. "I love you."

"I love you too."

He rolled onto his side and faced me, and kissed the tip of my nose before putting his hand under my chin and angling my face up until he was able to reach my lips. He gave me a deep kiss as his hand started to roam. When I started to get interested…who was I kidding? I had been interested from the first moment he said 'good morning'. He kissed his way down my body until…oh, God, I was glad he was home.


	14. Chapter 14

The first time was thorough and thrilling. The second time was in the shower, and was soapy and sensual. After I toweled off, I wondered if I cared about how my hair looked enough to go to the effort of blowing it dry. I felt boneless and content in a way that I hadn't felt since Ranger had left for Colombia. I decided that drying my hair would require me to stay upright, and I really wanted to melt down on a chair into a puddle of goo. As I finished drying my body, Ranger carried through his housecoat and wrapped it around me. He had already pulled on a pair of sweatpants, and I knew from experience that would be all he had on. I smiled at him, and Ranger laughed. "Oh, no", he said. "I have things that I need to get done today, especially if we are going to your parents' for dinner tomorrow."

"Okay", I said. "I still need to talk to them and ask them if it would be alright."

"Has your mother ever said no in the past?"

I laughed. "No, but there's a first time for everything." Ranger tied the sash closed and gave me another kiss, then tugged my hand and led me to the kitchen. Ella had put a lemon poppyseed loaf in the fridge, with sliced cheeses and a large bowl of fruit salad. "Yum", I said as I spied the breakfast. After all, lemon poppyseed loaf was like cake, and who didn't like cake for breakfast?

Ranger smiled. He placed the platter of cheese and the cutting board out on the breakfast bar as I divided the fruit salad into two bowls and placed them on the breakfast bar. I started a pot of coffee while Ranger sliced a few pieces of quick bread and sat down, and I prepared my cup ready to add the coffee. Ranger didn't need his prepared with cream or sugar. He took his black. I thought he was nuts.

"Tank arranged with Morelli to come to the office at five today for dinner, and to stay for a meeting with you, me, Tank and him to talk about this mob situation. We're hoping to come up with a game plan."

"When did you decide that?"

"Tank arranged it with Morelli yesterday evening. He said that you had already left for the day, and he didn't want to disturb you. He sent you a text, but you didn't respond."

I thought for a moment. "I had a long soak in the bath and shaved, so that's probably where I was. I didn't even hear my phone buzz."

"That would do it. I had a good chance to go over the data that you pulled together. You did a phenomenal job, babe."

I smiled. My heart felt a little lighter. Hearing Tank's reaction and Morelli's reaction had meant a lot to me, but hearing that Ranger liked it was the most important of all. Nobody could make me feel as good about myself as Ranger could.

"You worked very hard on that research. How many hours did you spend on it?"

"About twenty-four, between my research into the various people and the research into the company itself."

"We'll have to start charging Morelli for the time."

"Don't laugh about it. Tank told me that this work is in response to the favor you owed Morelli for the work he did in getting Dickie charged for tax evasion. However, I was talking to Morelli last night and he was saying that he has involved his captain in the discussion, and his captain was equally as impressed by the research that was done. He asked whether we would periodically mind working for the force as consultants to provide this sort of information to them on particularly stubborn cases."

"That's something to consider. How long does it take to do a search?"

"If there is nothing there, about half an hour. However, if In-Spect identifies avenues that deserve to be explored, then that amount of time goes up astronomically. So, in this case, there were five things that I was researching – the company itself, and the four people. I went down some rabbit holes and did a lot of in-depth investigating. I spent about five hours on each of those components."

"I'll assume that each person will require as much detail when I quote a project, and I'll bill you out at seventy-five dollars an hour. That gives us a lot of profit, is still reasonable, but is a high enough cost that the TPD won't be coming to us all the time asking for us to do their research. What do you think about that?"

"That sounds good to me – especially the part where they don't come to us constantly. I am way behind in my analysis of Bordin's employees because I took the two days to do the research on the Vistonnis and the Bianchis. I am also behind in my skip tracing."

"Tank told me that Miguel and Ramon were going skip tracing with you on Monday?"

"Yes. Tank set it up yesterday afternoon. I'm not sure why I need two people to help, but Tank insisted."

"One is to help you capture the skips, and the other is to watch your back."

"I think it's a bit of overkill."

Ranger looked at me. "Babe", he said.

"Seriously, Ranger. My apartment has only been firebombed. It's not like it is anything unusual."

"Babe, I am happier than I have ever been now that you have moved in with me. I don't want to take any chances that something happened to you. I don't think I could cope if you were ever hurt or killed, especially knowing that it was something that could have been avoided." I sighed. "You mean everything to me, babe." He reached across and picked up my hand, and kissed my fingers.

"I love you too, but don't you think this is a bit of overkill?"

"Your apartment was firebombed."

"It's not like it is something that hasn't happened before."

"I know, but you could have been in it."

"But I wasn't."

"But you could have been. Rebecca didn't know that you don't live there any longer. She intended to burn your place, babe. She intended to burn Rex, to burn your clothes, to burn your furniture and, if she got lucky, she intended to burn you as well. Just because she didn't get the chance to doesn't mean that she should be given another chance to kill you. When she figures out that you completed the research, and she might now that Morelli is giving a bit of push back, she will be gunning for you. Do my adrenal glands a favor and play it safe."

I looked at him and wanted to argue with him, but he was right. If I had lived there, it wouldn't be just a firebombing. It would have been a disaster, and that's what Rebecca wanted for me.

"The good news is that she doesn't know where I am living at the moment", I said.

Ranger smiled. "Only you would find a piece of good news in amongst all the crap."

I sighed. "Okay, I'll take Miguel and Ramon." I sighed again and must have looked long-suffering, because Ranger's lips twitched and I could tell that he was thinking about smiling.

"Thank you", he said.

"Did you hear that the empty lot next to us is for sale? Miguel told me. He wondered if you had wanted to buy it to build another building on the site and perhaps join the two with a bridge. There isn't quite enough room for everybody now, and the company keeps continuing to grow. I can see it with the number of new companies that we have starting up. It is hard for me to keep up with the research."

He finished his fruit. "That's a good idea. I'll look into it. I've been trying to decide what to do about the space. I was debating about getting another building for the staff quarters, but the problem is that I want to keep my Emergency Response Team close so that they can mobilize quickly in a crisis. But if I was able to move them somewhere close by, it would open up two more floors to work with. We need to hire more people as well. We need another person in accounting, another person in IT, and I'd like to start a HR department with hiring a person responsible for recruitment and retention, and another for training. It is getting too much for me to do the HR functions. We have grown fast and I can no longer do all the administrative functions myself in addition to what I like to do – the design of security programs. That's what makes me happy. Right now, I spend three-quarters of my day doing administration and half my day doing security design and working with clients. Yes, I know that adds up to more than one day, and that is reflective of the overtime I am spending. Like you, I work about ten hours a day five days a week, with another six hours on average each day on the weekend. Add in my training responsibilities for PMC, and I'm swamped."

"Would you still do the final interview of all the applicants, and just use the HR department for screening purposes?"

"That's the intent. Another building with maybe a glassed in bridge spanning the two would be an excellent option for the staff quarters. I'd like to have a couple of extra efficiency apartments for guests, four floors of staff apartments, and I'd like to expand the ERT teams to four rather than our current two. Each team would be responsible for one week out of the month rather than two, and I think that will be much fairer to the teams."

"This is a rude question, but can the company afford to build another building?"

"That partly depends upon how expensive the property is. My instinct is that it isn't an opportunity that we want to pass up, and that we should make it work. I will have to talk to the Chief Financial Officer to see what he says." He paused. "So tell me. How was the bacon when I was gone?"

"How did you know that I had bacon?"

Ranger laughed. "It was just a guess, but it seems that I guessed right?"

"Yes, you did. Why did you guess that?"

"Ella looks on the staff here as her boys. But you she looks on as an only daughter, and she loves spoiling you. Luis says that her desserts have improved greatly since you started eating dessert. She loves making you things to eat that she thinks you might like, just like she loves making you soup when you are sick."

"She has a big heart and a lot of love to share."

"She does. When she delivered her son, there were complications and she ended up having to have an emergency hysterectomy. I always thought that she would have been a great mom to a horde of children, but instead she was a great mother figure to all the neighborhood boys. Her son constantly had friends over for meals or to sleep over. She was absolutely gutted when her son died. Luis was as well. They both adored him. But Ella said that one of the problems with her son dying was that all his friends stayed away from them from that point on. I tried to go at least once a month so that I could talk to them, and it broke my heart to see them struggling so much. You wouldn't recognize them the way they were then. They were dejected and beaten down. They couldn't even stand up straight. They had no purpose in life and didn't see anything to be joyous about. Ella would start crying at the drop of a hat, and Luis just looked anxious all the time. But coming here was good for them. Having people to look after gave them a new lease on life. Luis likes puttering in his jobs, Ella is someone who loves being busy and taking care of people, and the two of them are happy. The guys are grateful that they are here as well. There couldn't be a better couple to take care of the building and the people who work here."

"What are you planning on doing when they retire?"

"I don't know if they ever will. I'll give them the choice, but I suspect that they won't want to. They are very happy here. What I would do, if they would let me, is put them into partial retirement. Perhaps have Ella do just the cooking, and have someone else in to do the cleaning and the laundry. Have Luis oversee the building maintenance but hire people to do the work. I don't know. That's about ten years in the future, and a lot can change in ten years."

"That's true. I worry about Ella sometimes just because she is so busy and because she doesn't get much of a chance to see friends. She works seven days a week."

"True, she doesn't see friends very often. I've tried to get her to work six days a week instead of seven, and I've tried to make her understand that I don't need a hot breakfast prepared each day. I can, after all, go to the break room for my breakfast. But every time I bring up the subject, she starts to cry. It doesn't matter how diplomatically I phrase it. She said that she likes making me special foods." Ranger flushed. "She said that all the boys here are important to her, but I'm like her son and she likes to spoil me. She said that it makes her feel good to know that she is taking care of me."

"I can see that. She makes me bacon every day when you are gone. I eat dinner in the break room just so that she doesn't have to separate out a meal just for me, but she always makes sure that there is a special treat in the fridge for me for my bedtime snack. It was funny the other day. I was thanking Ella for the breakfast she had made me. It was a superior BLT, and luckily I didn't say what it was. Ramon overheard and asked whether it was bacon. I told him it was an olive and peanut butter sandwich. He turned a little green."

"Imagine that", said Ranger with a half-smile.

"I don't understand it myself. He said that, if that was what I was eating when you weren't here, he'd stick to the break room food."


	15. Chapter 15

_I posted extra chapters last weekend to commemorate Victoria Day weekend here in Canada. This weekend is the Memorial Day weekend in the States, and I wanted to release extra chapters for all my American readers. I hope you have a great weekend doing something you love._

_~ Sarah ~_

I was able to get three good hours of work in on the Bordin files and a call in to my mother to ask whether we could come for dinner the next day, before Morelli showed up for dinner. Ralph, the guard working on the reception desk, called me and told me that Joe was there. I shut down my computer and took the elevator down to the lobby. Morelli smiled at me as I crossed over to the desk to sign him in, and I gave him a kiss on his cheek. He gave me a hug, I signed the sheet, and walked with Morelli over to the elevators.

As we got on the elevator, Morelli turned to me. "You never said. What did your grandmother and mother think of Ranger's apartment? You told me what Connie and Lula thought."

"They thought the elevator lacked music. Like Lula, my grandmother pointed out its absence and said that the morale of Ranger's staff would be improved with muzak."

"Is the morale bad?" said Morelli. He sounded surprised, and I could see why. He knew from me that Rangeman was a good place to work.

"No. Morale is great", I said. "I think it's the lack of muzak." Morelli smiled. "I know my morale is higher with the lack of muzak, anyway. People are bombarded enough with sound in life. It's nice to just have peace and quiet sometimes."

"I think morale is good due to more reasons than a lack of muzak", said Morelli. "After all, we don't have muzak at the precinct, and morale sucks."

"Yes, but you don't have muzak because you can't afford muzak. You can't even afford cop cars or Kevlar vests that aren't already aerated with bullet holes, and that kind of shoestring budget gets to people. We don't have muzak because Ranger tries to ensure his company is as quiet and stress-free as possible for staff. As he says, ninety-nine percent of his staff's job is routine and boring. The other one percent is terrifying. And it is because of that other one percent that Ranger tries to make sure that his men have somewhere sane to return to."

"I can see that."

"Did you end up giving Terry the research I had done?"

"No. I told her it was confidential. After you pointed out to me that she could be playing me for names of people, I didn't want to share that information with her."

We got off at the fifth floor and walked down to Ranger's office. "Hi", he said as we entered.

"Do you need a minute?" I said. "I can take Joe to get a coffee."

"We're actually going to go up to the apartment to eat at the dining room table", said Ranger. He smiled at the look of surprise on my face and turned to Morelli. "I figure it this way. Stephanie's family has seen the place, and two of her three closest friends have seen the place. You are her third closest friend. You deserve to see the place as well. We just ask that you keep knowledge of it quiet. I have made a lot of enemies in the past, and one of the ways I control my personal safety and that of Stephanie's is by being very private and by not letting people in."

"I'm honored", said Morelli.

So was I. I knew that Ranger was handing a huge vote of trust to Morelli simply because of his association to me. I knew this wasn't coming easy to him and I appreciated the gesture more than I could say. I smiled at Ranger, and he looked at me with a quirk to his lips. "Babe, how about you take Morelli up to the apartment and give him a tour. I have some things that I have to deal with down here and Tank and I will be up in about ten minutes."

I led Morelli to the elevator again. We didn't have long to wait for it to come. We got on in silence, and Morelli turned to me as the doors shut. "That was unexpected", he said. "Why is he letting me in now?"

"Because you are a good friend of mine. He didn't let in Mary Lou, but he did let in all the other people who are important to me. You're the last of the group of people that I most care about."

"I understand what an expression of trust this is."

I smiled. "I know you do."

The doors to the elevator opened onto the seventh floor. I unlocked the door to the apartment and turned on the lights. I threw my keys down on the silver tray and smiled when I saw that Ella had refreshed the flowers on the hall table. I led Morelli into the kitchen as I put a pot of coffee on. He looked around himself in surprise. The kitchen was enormous and welcoming with warm woods, dark granite counters, and high-end stainless steel appliances. The kitchen overlooked a dining room that, although small compared to the rest of the apartment, was larger than the dining room that was in the house that I had grown up in. The dining room was open onto a gigantic living room. The furniture in the dining room and the living room was all dark woods, all antique, and the upholstered furniture was done in dark brown leather.

I let Morelli wander around while I went into the bedroom and put my gun into the safe, then I returned to the kitchen. "Do you want to see the rest of the apartment?" I said.

"Absolutely", said Morelli.

I led him to the bedroom and looked around. Like the rest of the apartment, the bedroom was enormous. The closet was a dressing room in size and bigger than my childhood bedroom, the bathroom was large enough that a family of four could use it comfortably all at the same time, and the attached office/den was a big room but was small enough to be cozy and had a gas fireplace. We spent a lot of time in the den.

"This is very nice", said Morelli. "I knew his place wouldn't be a sty, but I never expected his place to be this luxurious."

"I know. It still takes me by surprise as well."

"So when you stayed over, where did you sleep?"

"Usually in the den." I decided it would be kinder to not tell him that, when I fell asleep, Ranger would carry me to his bed. I would wake up all cuddled into him, often with my hands down his pants.

Morelli looked at me, and I could tell that he wanted to ask where I slept when I didn't sleep in the den. I could also tell when he decided that he really didn't want to know. I was glad, because I hated lying to him and the truth would just hurt him and not accomplish anything.

We walked back into the kitchen and I poured Morelli a coffee and fixed it the way he liked it. I handed it to him before fixing my own and putting the cream away in the fridge.

"So, I can tell that this is a comfortable place for you to live."

"It's more luxurious than my own apartment by far." Morelli snorted. "But it wasn't the reason I got together with him."

Morelli looked at me, eyebrows raised, his mouth dropped open in surprise. "I never thought it was. You aren't that kind of girl."

"When Lula was here she commented that she would have settled down with Ranger as well now that she had seen his apartment. The comment bothered me. Do you think that's how people see me?"

"I doubt that Lula meant it the way that it sounded. Anyone that knows you well knows that you aren't the kind of person who is attracted to material possessions. You are a woman of principles. After all, if material possessions were what were important to you, then you would have stayed with Dickie or, if you didn't stay with Dickie, you would have settled down with me. My place isn't as luxurious as Ranger's, but it is bigger than your apartment."

"I like your place. It's a relaxing place, a comfortable place, and is the kind of place that you want to come home to at the end of the day. Besides, your place has Bob."

Morelli smiled. "That it does. Just think of Joyce though. She wouldn't have even considered breaking up with Dickie over something like Dickie having an affair. She would have just gone out and had an affair on him, and would say that whatever was good for the goose was good for the gander. She is very financially driven, and the amount of money and the quality of house and cars would be what was important to her. You are not financially driven."

I sniffled.

Morelli came over and gave me a hug, and he kissed me on the top of my head. "You aren't like that, cupcake. Don't worry. Ranger doesn't think that, I don't think that, your family doesn't think that, and I highly doubt that Lula or Connie think that either."

"Dickie called my apartment substandard and inferred that was a hovel. He made me embarrassed about having lived there."

"Your apartment had character. That's okay. It was a good place to live for a long time. The building wasn't fancy, but you couldn't have asked for nicer neighbors and, quite honestly, you can do a lot to your apartment to improve it but you cannot do much to improve your neighbors. They cared about you. They still do. I have seen that countless times in your building."

I stepped out of Morelli's arms and wiped my eyes, and seconds later Ranger walked in with Tank. He looked at me and his eyes tightened into his 'not happy' look, but the rest of his face went blank as he hid the rest of his feelings.

Joe looked at him for a second, and then turned to me. "Tell Ranger what Lula said to you", he said.

I shook my head and sniffled. I didn't want to take the chance that Ranger agreed with Lula, and I didn't want to tell him in front of Tank.

"Cupcake, Ranger is glaring at me and will blame me for making you cry if you don't tell him what Lula said."

"It's silly. I'm just being an idiot."

Ranger looked at me. He walked over to me and gathered me into his arms and held me carefully. "Babe, tell me."

I buried my nose into the crook of his neck and started to cry harder.

"Wait here", said Ranger to the other two men. He picked me up and carried me into the bedroom, kicked the door shut, and walked through to the den. He sat down on the sofa and settled me in his lap. "What's going on?"

"Lula just hurt my feelings, and then Dickie hurt my feelings, and I'm just being an idiot."

"You aren't an idiot. What did Lula say?" He passed me the tissue box as I sniffled.

"When she saw your apartment, she inferred that the only reason I got together with you was because your apartment was so nice. She said that I should do anything you want just so that you allow me to stay."

"Lula's an idiot. What did Dickie say?"

"He said that my apartment was substandard and not suitable to live in."

"We've already shown that Dickie is an idiot. Why do those comments bother you so much?"

I sniffled again and took another tissue. "It made me feel like a failure. Dickie used to tell me that I would never amount to anything and that I was nothing without him. When Dickie turned his nose up at my apartment, it brought it all up again. It made me think that he was right. And then Lula's comments reiterated it. It seemed like she also thought I was a failure and couldn't take care of myself."

"Babe." He pulled me into his body and smoothed my hair out of my face. "Why didn't you want to tell me?"

"I didn't want to tell anyone. It's just that Morelli said that your place was nice and I was afraid that he thought that as well, and I started to cry, and that's how Morelli found out."

"Why didn't you tell me when it happened?"

"I just thought I was being stupid. I know that it's a silly thing to be upset about, but I don't want people to think that I am moneygrubbing. I love you for you, and if you lived in a hovel I would still want to be with you. You don't think that I'm with you for monetary reasons, do you?"

Ranger kissed me on the side of my head. "Babe, I know how long and how hard I had to work to get you agree to live at my place. That's the first thing. The second thing is that I like your apartment. It has character. If I didn't like your apartment, I wouldn't have asked you if I could take it over as a safe house. Yes, the rent is reasonable and it isn't luxurious, but it was a good home. I had a lot of happy times there. There was nothing wrong with your apartment. The third thing is that Dickie was wrong. You are a success. Personally, everybody loves you. You are kind and giving and loving. You care about everybody, even those who don't necessarily deserve it. You have the highest EQ out of anyone I've ever met. Professionally, you are the best researcher I've had on staff and you're a good bounty hunter. You're a success both personally and professionally and, I'd like to think, romantically as well."

I looked at him in the eyes to judge if he was lying. "Is that how you really see me?"

"That you're a success? Yes. No question about it. How do you see yourself?"

"As a screw-up. I've always seen myself as a screw-up, which is why I probably accepted it when Dickie used to tell me that. I thought he was just telling me the truth."

"Babe, you aren't a screw up. You are a valuable member of the Rangeman team. Everyone loves you, and you are the sexiest person I have ever met."

I kissed him on his cheek. "Thanks."

"I love you, babe."

I swiped the last of the tears from my eyes. "I love you too." He rubbed my back for a moment. "We should probably get back to the dining room. Morelli is probably worried about me and Tank is probably blaming him."

Ranger smiled. "Then let's wash your face and return to our guests."

I scrambled off his knee and walked into the bathroom. I washed the makeup off my face and, deciding there was nothing I could do to repair the damage done by my crying jag, I left the makeup off. Ranger pulled me into a cuddle. "Are you ready to join Morelli and Tank again?"

I took a deep breath. "Yeah", I said.

We walked out of the bedroom and over to where Tank and Morelli were sitting in the dining room. Tank was glaring at Morelli, and Joe looked up in concern. Tank turned to Ranger. "Everything okay?" he said.

"Dickie is a fucking asshole", said Ranger, "and the only good thing about the situation is that he is already in jail."

"I told you that Ranger wouldn't be mad at you", said Morelli. "Anybody who knows you knows that you wouldn't get together with anyone for financial reasons, and anyone who says that you aren't good enough is just plain wrong."

"Thanks, Joe."

"Is that what you're upset about?" said Tank. "Lula inferred that you were here because of the monetary benefits from being with Ranger?" He shook his head. "That's the biggest pile of horseshit that I have ever heard."

"Dickie inferred her apartment was substandard", said Joe.

"Good thing I wasn't there", said Tank. "I think I would have hit him. I like your apartment, Steph. It has character."

"I'm hearing that a lot", I said. "I like it too."

"Why do you like it?" asked Ranger.

I paused and smiled. "It has character."


	16. Chapter 16

I had just nicely poured Ranger some coffee and refreshed Tank's and Morelli's cups when Ella came up with a hot turkey divan and a salad on a tray. There was a hot loaf of bread as well. "This looks and smells amazing, thanks", I said as I took the tray from Ella.

Ella looked closely at the tearstains on my face. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, thanks", I said. "Just a bit of the past coming back to haunt me again."

Ella patted me on my shoulder. "If you need someone to talk to, you know where I am."

"Thanks." I gave her a hug, and Ella smiled at everyone and wished us all a good evening.

After she left, I said, "let's dish up our food in the kitchen and carry it through to the dining room. That way we don't have to worry about the hot plate affecting the nice finish of the table."

The men all washed their hands and lined up with plates. I put out knives and forks for the men to take when they had selected their food, and put napkins on the table and glasses of cold water.

When we had all sat down, Ranger and I across from Joe and Tank, Ranger said, "when the two of you came up, I had to return a phone call to the TPD Chief of Police, Neil. He had a proposition to give to me, and I told him that I would talk to the three of you about it before I decided as to what we will do." He turned to me. "Apparently the TPD was very impressed by the job you did in providing the research for Morelli's case. They wanted to purchase a copy of In-Spect. I refused. However, they don't want to give up that level of support, so they'd like to have the ability to hire you for the more challenging cases that the TPD has, the cases that they themselves are unable to find leads on. They want the ability to hire you and pay you by the hour for work done on their behalf. We talked about fees and were able to come to an agreement. Would this be something that interests you?"

"Yes, as long as it isn't too often. It's not like I am looking for work."

"I know that you're incredibly busy, which is why I told Neil that I would not only ask you, but that I would insist that you had the ability to say no at any time if you were already snowed under. I realize that you don't have twenty or more hours every week to dedicate to researching for someone else, and I don't want you to make yourself sick again by trying to do it all." A few months before, when Ranger and I were just starting to date, I had been incredibly busy at both the bonds office and the research desk. I tried to do it all and ended up coming down with the flu. Of course, that was also the time that I fell asleep standing up.

"Okay."

He turned to Joe. "In the spirit of cooperation, I also asked that there be a liaison assigned to work with Rangeman and the TPD. Since Stephanie will be doing most of the work for the TPD, I asked that you are the person who is assigned as the liaison. I know that the TPD won't ask too much of Stephanie if you are the person working as the liaison, because you will ensure that Steph takes care of herself just as much as I will. Neil agreed with this and is, I think, considering offering you a promotion for the extra duties."

"That sounds good", said Joe.

"Tank, the first two points were the easiest. The last request we'll have to think carefully about. Neil asked us whether he could contract our security services at times. He said that his staff isn't large, and there are times when they need more staff – but because that need isn't consistent, he wants to keep his staff at a bare minimum level. The times when he said he could use our services are times like when Steph went into Kanye's lair to rescue Mary Lou. Morelli could only get together three of his staff in time to meet Kanye's demands and the people he was able to get weren't trained in any special operations. They were just people that he was able to grab off their patrol. It would have been a problem if we weren't there, since we needed a much larger complement of people to rescue Mary Lou. Our staff is well-trained and professional, and Neil was impressed with what we did for Mary Lou. He wants to be able to hire us to fill in for times when our skills are needed, a sort of paid and trained auxiliary if you will. For this, he would pay a healthy retainer, and would pay us by the hour for the work that would need to be done. He understands that the hourly would be for all ten members of the emergency response team as well as either you or I as the unit commander. He estimates that we would be used about once a month for a day on average. The pay is good and fair to both of us. We just have to decide if this is a service we want to provide."

"Why wouldn't you?" said Morelli.

"We aren't cops, and sometimes we get things done because we aren't cops. We don't have to work within the strict confines of the law the same way that you do. However, the other side of looking at this is that it is good to foster a close working relationship with the police. While both Neil and I agree that this will only work as long as we can protect our privacy, and that we don't publish news of our close relationship, it would be nice at times to be able to work more closely together."

"Speaking selfishly", said Joe, "it would be good to be able to call on you. I know how to do a lot of what you do just because I was in the navy, but I could never be as proficient as your men. Most of the TPD, however, don't have the skills that you do. In the event that there is a kidnapped person or that there is a hostage situation, for example, I'd rather use your men. We can call on the County's SERT team and they are good as well, but they might already be involved in something and they generally can't mobilize as quickly as you can. They are good when the shit hits the fan but they service twelve different police departments and other law enforcement agencies. It would be good if we had you in our back pocket."

"That's what the chief said as well."

"I know how I'm leaning", said Tank. "How are you leaning?"

"I think we should do it", said Ranger. "If nothing else, it provides our men another training exercise that we don't have to pay for. It could be a very good thing for us. There have been times in the past when a closer relationship with the TPD would have come in handy as well – just like it came in handy when I wanted Dickie investigated. It also provides something a bit different to break the monotony of doing patrol or working the monitoring stations for staff."

"That's what I am thinking as well", said Tank. "However, if we do this we will need to hire a couple more Operations staff. We are already stretched to the max, and if we get too much more work then we won't be able to provide a high level of service. Since our service is what we're known for, we don't want that service level to degrade."

"I think it is time to hire more staff anyway. I was talking about this with Steph earlier. I'm thinking I'll establish a HR department and hire two HR staff. You and I are spending far too much time looking after HR matters, which means that we are scrambling to service the other departments. Bob down in Accounting says that they are running keep up, and we need to have another person for accounts payable as well as accounts receivable. Leo says that the Cybersecurity department is struggling, and we're growing so much that it might make sense to expand the monitoring stations again. With this retainer that the TPD would be paying us in addition to the extra work that we are bringing in, we'd be able to have four ERTs instead of two, which is better for staff. Andy in Sales has another two companies that want me to do a formal presentation, and we have those three companies and the one private citizen from last week. Each of those people look like they will sign a contract with us, and they are big clients."

"Where are you going to house four teams? We're already threatening to explode with the number of people that are in the building", said Tank.

"Steph and I were talking about that as well. I need to talk to Bob about this further, but Miguel told Steph that the lot beside us is going up for sale. I have to do some market research, but it would be good to build another building there, and move over all the staff apartments and keep this building just for office functions."

"Your staff all live onsite?" said Morelli in surprise.

"Only the ERTs. The Emergency Response Teams are allowed ten minutes from the time their alarm sounds until they have to muster in the equipment room. We have two teams of ten people, and they alternate weeks as to when they are on-call. That's how we were able to mobilize so quickly when Mary Lou was taken. Tank is the only ERT member who doesn't live onsite, and that's only because the apartments are too small for both him and his cats. I'm on-site as team lead to take his place in the event of an emergency. ERT staff is allowed to live in their apartment permanently or only when they are on-call if they are married, but for the weeks where they are on-call they are required to live onsite. Spouses are not allowed to live onsite with staff. It's a condition of their employment."

"How do you get around the labor laws with hiring only men?"

"That's one of the good things about not being a police officer. We just go ahead and do it. Yes, I know that it's sexist. But we go ahead and do it anyway and so far the situation has worked for us. We have some specific requirements for staff, specifically that all staff have to have a military background. We require all ERT personnel to have a special tactical background, whether that was with the SEALs, the Rangers, the Delta Forces, or whatever. Standard military staff aren't trained enough to be able to respond to the types of scenarios we expect the ERTs to be able to handle. We find the better trained the staff, the more effective a security specialist they are."

"Okay, so should we go for it?" said Tank. "Personally, I think it makes sense, but it's a big decision and I think we should sleep on it."

"I agree. I told Neil that we would give him an answer in ten days."

My phone rang, and I looked at the display. It was another unknown number. Morelli looked over. "That's Becky's number", he said.

Ranger looked up, his body still and alert. "Put it on speakerphone, babe."

I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"I told you not to talk to the police", said the woman. I looked at Morelli. He mouthed 'Becky' to me.

"Why are you calling me?"

Ranger typed a message into his phone to tell me to keep her talking, and after I read it and nodded that I understood, he typed in a message to one of the IT guys. I assume it was to get the call traced. Joe picked up his phone and texted someone as well. I would assume it was to let the police know that Rebecca was causing problems.

"I told you very kindly not to share your findings with the police. Joe told me that you had told him that you weren't able to do the research, but you took your findings to the chief instead."

"Very kindly! You firebombed my apartment."

"It was fun. People told me that you have hamster. Did he get fried?"

"You're sick."

"You shouldn't have taken your findings to the police."

"Who told you that they were taken to the police?"

"I have a cop friend who can break into any computer. He routinely breaks into the chief's computer to have a little look around to see if there is anything that concerns us. He saw your report. You have to be punished for sending it to him."

"I don't understand."

"You will. Are you in the Rangeman building? They are the ones that employed you to do the research, didn't they? Or was this just a little favor that you were doing for Joe, so that you could get back in his good books again. He's over you, sweetheart. It doesn't matter what you do, you aren't getting him back."

"You sound like you know him."

"I've met him once or twice", she said. "He seems like a nice guy."

"He's the best. How do you know him?"

Ranger looked down at his phone and gave me the thumbs up signal. He showed the message around the room to everybody, and I froze when I saw that Becky's phone was right outside the Rangeman building. Joe typed that information into his phone.

"We met at church."

"So you are a devout person." I wondered if I could use that as leverage to get her to stop doing what she was about to do.

"More devout than you. Grandma Bella has been telling me all about you. She's been telling me that you're a slut, that you're a bimbo, that you're no good, that you were just out for Joe's money. From what I heard from Joe, she's right."

"So you're Joe's new girlfriend?" I was pleased that my voice was remaining steady because my body was shaking hard. Ranger reached behind me and massaged out the tense muscles at the base of my neck.

"Yeah. He's the best lay that I've ever had. Although he said the same thing about me. He said that I'm so much better than you ever were."

I looked up at Joe, and he looked shocked and upset. He was frantically shaking his head no.

"Then I guess the two of you will be very happy", I said.

"We'll be happy without you. Joe was telling me last night that you were such a bitch to him. He said that he had to break up with you, and you didn't understand. He said that you just wanted him for his house, and he was looking for someone who wanted him for him. So he broke up with you."

"Okay."

"But you won't let him go, so I'll eliminate you so that you are no longer in his life."

"How are you planning on doing that?"

"Look outside."

"Why?"

"I want you to see me when I shoot a million bullet holes through the window of the building."

I looked at Ranger, and he nodded. I walked over to the window and looked outside. "I can't see you. On which side of the building are you?"

"I'm on the north side."

"Okay then. You just have to wait a minute until I get to the north side." I walked around the apartment until I was looking out the windows behind the desk in the office. "Okay, I'm looking out the windows. What am I looking for?"

"I'm the one down here with the machine gun."

"I see you. Do you want me to wave to you? Is that why you want me here?"

"I just want you to know where I'm aiming."

"I'm on the top floor. Will the bullets even go up that far?"

"I wasn't going to shoot you. I'll save you for later. I want to play a bit first. I was planning on shooting the people in the gym. It looks like they're doing a self-defense lesson. It's funny to practice self-defense. There aren't any moves that can protect you from a bullet. Remember, when these people die, it will be your fault." She hung up the phone, took aim, and fired.

We could hear the incessant firing of the machine gun through the windows and I think I must have turned white, because Ranger reached out and guided me to a seat on the sofa. As the sound ricocheted through my brain, tears rolled down my face and I struggled to catch my breath. He pushed my head between my knees. "Breathe, babe", he said. "You don't have to worry. This building has been made with bulletproof glass. The guys in the self-defense class should be fine."

"Can you call down and see?"

"I will."

I struggled to a sitting position, and Ranger looked at me worriedly. I guess I looked as shaky as I felt or I still looked white, because he pushed my head down between my knees again.

Tank called down to the gym for a situational report. Only the instructor was left in the room. "Everyone ran out of the gym when the shots started", said the man. "Someone said something about getting their bulletproof vest and one of the guys, I don't know his name but he's as tall as you and as built as you, Tank, directed everyone to run out the back doors so that the shooter didn't see them coming."

"Thanks. I'll be down in a minute", said Tank. He put his phone into his pocket, nodded to us, and left the room.

"Ranger?" I said.

"Babe?"

"Can I sit up? This position is cramping my bladder, and I desperately have to go pee."

Ranger smiled as he let me up again and he trailed behind me, ready to catch me if I fell, as I made my way to the washroom. I think he was planning on waiting in the bathroom while I finished up, but I glared at him and I did the potty dance until he left. He smiled at me and said, "I'll be just outside the door if you need me."

I could hear him chuckle as he heard my sigh of relief as I went. I flushed and washed my hands, and when I opened the door he looked at me with a soft expression on his face. "Better?" he asked.

"There is nothing better than the feeling of going pee when you are absolutely bursting."

Ranger laughed.

He grabbed hold of my hand and led me into the den again. Joe was sitting on the sofa and talking to his captain on the phone. He reported the shots. He also reported the hacking that the mob was regularly doing on the computer and asked his captain to tell Neil.

"I'll call Neil and let him know that Rangeman can create a firewall that an Act of Congress wouldn't be able to crack", said Ranger. I moved to go downstairs, and Ranger tugged me to the sofa and waited until I sat down. "Tank will report to us", he said. "I don't want you going out of the building and potentially getting shot."

"You offer firewall design as well?" said Morelli. I think the two of them were trying to divert my mind from the inner screaming.

"We are a full-service security shop", said Ranger. "In Operations, we have a cyber-security team, a monitoring team, patrol staff, system designers, system installers, personal security staff and onsite security staff. We have designed systems as complex as that used by MoMA in New York or that used by the hospital here in Trenton, or as simple as that used by Al's Auto Sales. We support the Secret Service when the President is in town and we have provided bodyguarding services for a variety of celebrities and financiers in the States. About a hundred security guards work for us in a number of locations, and we've hired the best hackers and computer programmers outside Google for our cyber-security team, and that's all in addition to the services that you are more familiar with. We really are a full-service shop."

"I'm impressed", said Joe. "I knew that you were successful and that you did a lot, but I never suspected that your services were as encompassing as they are. I didn't know that you designed large-scale systems like that used in the MoMA. Steph never told me any of that."

"Stephanie has signed a confidentiality agreement that says she's not allowed to talk about anything we do. It's not something we advertise. To be our liaison, you'll be required to sign a confidentiality agreement as well. Our anonymity is a condition written into many of our contracts with our clients for both their safety as well as for ours, as it is a security risk for our clients if the system designer is known. It opens up the potential for extracting the information through any method, from bribery to torture. I trust my staff, but people are human and make human mistakes."

"And everyone who works for you are all former military personnel?"

"Not exactly. That's what I say, and all our designers, installers, monitoring, patrol, bodyguards and security guards are all military men. A few of those men had juvenile records from before they became military men, generally for break-and-enters. Their expertise makes them excellent system designers. Our cyber-security team, however, is comprised of former hackers rather than military men, mostly men who were in trouble with the law for hacking into supposedly secure computer networks. Our sales staff is composed of people who have a history of selling and are good at it. They may have been picked up at a cell phone kiosk in the mall. They may have been picked up at a used car dealership. Most of those people have military training, but they were hired for the sales and people skills rather than their military experience. Our lawyer and his assistant formerly worked for JAG. The accountants don't have any military training. We just find that those with military training tend to work harder and to take the job more seriously and, more importantly, they see the use of force as a tool rather than a lark. I had to hire people quickly over the summer and made the mistake of breaking my rule and hiring some non-military people. It was a disaster. Not one of those people lasted. I had other staff members begging me to let the probationary staff go and, no matter how careful I was in hiring them, they were trigger happy and hotheaded. That's one of the reasons I want an HR department. They will be able to help me screen the applicants. I want to give them psychological testing, and I want to do a more advanced character search on them. During the summer, I hadn't had time."

"How many people are on your team?"

"As I said, we have about a hundred security guards who work for us but are contracted by and work out of other facilities. We have roughly twenty people who work in administrative positions and approximately forty people who work in operations. Administrative positions work eight to five, but Operations is divided into three shifts and rotate through time slots every two weeks."

"I didn't realize you were so large."

"It's why Tank was saying that we are bursting at the seams. When we built this building, we thought we were sizing up significantly." He shook his head. "Now, just a few years later, the building is way too small. I don't want to simply move buildings though, since this building has a lot of special features in it – like bulletproof glass, a secure holding cell and a gun range, for starters."

"Do some of your staff have nefarious pasts? Do you have to worry about substance abuse?"

"We do random and periodic drug testing. Staff know, from the moment that they are hired on, that there is a zero tolerance policy for drug use, either on the job or in their spare time, and they must show up to work ready to go and fully functional. There is no tolerance for those showing up with hangovers, and those who do are sent home without pay. Employees are treated well and they know it. They don't want to do anything to mess it up. As far as I know, morale is good."

"So you don't want to start playing elevator muzak to improve morale?" said Joe with a smile.

Ranger laughed. "Not on your life."


	17. Chapter 17

Ranger received a call from Tank and turned focused and directed as he listened without talking for a moment. "Is everyone okay?" he asked. He listened some more, and then said, "we'll be down in a minute." He hung up the phone and turned to Joe and me. "The upshot is that Becky got away, but the TPD just arrived. Babe, I want you to pull up Becky's picture and text it to me. I want to be able to send it out to all staff with the request to watch for her and perform a citizen's arrest if they find her. The problem the staff had this time was two-fold: they didn't know who they were looking for or what she looked like, and they didn't get there in time. Half the team went out the back door when they heard the shots, while the other half went up the parking garage ramp and out of the building that way. However, when both teams got to the front of the building, a car was speeding away. It was a silver Cadillac CTS. None of them had their guns on them, so they couldn't shoot out the tires, and none of them had their keys to their cars so they weren't able to set up a chase."

"Becky drives a silver Cadillac CTS", said Morelli.

"Babe, can you get the license plate for that? I'll give that to the men at the same time as I text out the picture of Becky to the group. I'll send the picture out to everybody in the company so that everybody can keep their eyes open, but if you can work up a list of favorite haunts I'll ask the patrol guys to make the rounds regularly."

"Sure thing."

"I should go down to do my police thing", said Morelli.

"We'll come down with you", said Ranger. "Steph needs to go to her office to gather the information that I asked her for, and I need to go down and talk to my team."

He led us out of the apartment and opened the door for the stairs while I locked the door. I gave Joe a hug and Ranger a kiss when we got to the fifth floor. "Let me know if there is anything I can do", I said.

"Just stay out of the way", said Morelli. "I don't want to take the chance that she comes back and attacks you again."

I nodded. I heard what he was saying. Didn't mean that I would follow his orders, but I heard what he was saying.

I walked down the hallway. As I passed the control room, Ramon called out. "Steph, do you know what happened downstairs?"

"Yes", I said as I saw all four monitoring staff look up. "Do you?"

"No", said Cal. "We heard shots and then we saw all the staff go running out of the building, but we haven't been able to see anything on fire and no one has pulled the fire alarm."

"The only person left in the gym is the trainer, and he was hiding on the far side of the room, crouched down in a corner and cowering."

"It's a hard thing to live through when you are so terrified. Ranger thought that I was going to pass out when I realized what was happening. Neither the trainer nor I was aware that the windows in this place are bulletproof."

"I didn't know that either", said Jose.

"So what happened?" said Cal.

"I have been doing some research for the TPD into a new branch of the mob who is trying to take over the Mafia presence here in Trenton. To do so, they are systematically killing off all the old members of the mob and so far have killed seven in the last month alone. We thought we knew who two of them were, and I probed deeply into their lives this week. I identified two more. Of those four, one person realized that I was researching them, and she called me yesterday to let me know that I shouldn't submit my findings. She firebombed my apartment as a warning. Everybody was okay and essentially it was just a nuisance, but it was still upsetting. However, not that it would have mattered, but by the time she threatened me I had already submitted my results. We figured out that the person who was threatening me is one of the four that I identified – and Joe Morelli's now-ex girlfriend. She doesn't know of the 'ex' part yet. Today she called to tell me that I should have listened to her and as punishment she would mow down the Rangeman staff with an Uzi."

"And she would have if it wasn't for the bulletproof glass", said Cal.

"Thank goodness that Ranger was thinking ahead when he installed it", said Jose.

"We called the shots into the station", said Cal.

"Morelli called them in as well. He was upstairs the whole time that it was happening, and he didn't come down until he knew that she had left the area. He doesn't want to tip her off that we know that she's the perpetrator, so he's going to have a bit of acting ahead of him."

"Hope he's good at undercover work", said Jose.

I laughed. I knew he was good at under the covers work, but somehow I didn't think Joe's bedroom skills were what Jose was talking about. Joe was a fun and satisfying lover. Luckily for me, Ranger was more.

"I'm going to my office to pull up some pictures of Rebecca to pass around the staff."

"Thanks", said Cal. "Those pictures may come in useful."

I smiled at the group as they concentrated fully on the monitors again, and as they all got back into the zone, I walked down to my office, opened my door, turned on my lights and powered up my computer. I left my office for a moment to get myself a coffee, and I grabbed a slice of banana bread for a snack. With the call from Becky interrupting our dinner, I was still hungry. Besides, banana bread was the closest thing to happy food that the Rangeman staff room carried, and I desperately needed some happy food. I stood at the array of food and considered it, then decided that it was a two-piece of happy food day and took a slice of apple cinnamon bread as well. Just to ensure that I was fully happy, I added a fruit and yogurt parfait and juggled the food as I carried it back to my office.

Minutes later, I was deep into research again. I created a fact sheet on Rebecca, giving her personal details, included a picture, and added areas that she was often seen. By the time I was finished, I had created a two-page summary of the different details of her life. I sent it off to Ranger both by email and by text, and I sent a copy to Joe asking him if I forgot anything important. I got a response back from Joe five minutes later saying that he couldn't have done as comprehensive an overview, and he didn't know anything that I missed. Five minutes after that, Ranger sent out an all-staff bulletin, so I guessed that he liked it just as much. I sent a text to Ranger asking him if it would be helpful for me to come down. He told me to stay up in my office, and I kicked myself for asking. I should have just gone down to the gym and dealt with the consequences afterwards. What did they say? It was better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission?

While I waited for Ranger to come up, I opened up the Bordin files and got to work. I was able to get two more employees researched by the time Ranger returned to the fifth floor. He came down to my office. "The good news is that no one was tagged. I had to walk the trainer to his car and I don't think he had stopped shaking before he had left, but he wasn't hurt. People were more annoyed than anything else simply because they didn't get her. The windows of the gym are shattered but they held their form. Insurance will cover replacement. All in all, it's a nuisance rather than a problem and could have been much worse."

I nodded. It could have been much, much worse.

"So what's the plan?" I said.

Ranger smiled. "You aren't going to like it."

"Crap. Okay, what is the plan that I'm not going to like?"

"This is what I worked out with Morelli. Tomorrow you stay around the building with me. I don't want you to go without a guard until Rebecca has been arrested, and I don't have anyone available to accompany you right now. I will still take you to your parents' for dinner. On Monday, I would prefer if you stayed at Rangeman but I also understand that you have a commitment to pick up skips, and I'll support you in that as long as you take two staff with you. I know that you already agreed to take Miguel and Ramon, and I just want to reiterate how important that is. I would like to come with you myself, but with being away for the last week I can't afford the time."

"I promised to keep them with me, didn't I?"

"I know, but I wasn't sure if you'd had your fingers crossed behind your back at the time."

I laughed. "Would I do that?"

"I'll plead the fifth on that." Ranger huffed out a laugh and shook his head. "Hopefully you get your list of skips picked up on Monday, but if you don't I want you to take a couple of Rangeman team members with you to pick up skips until Rebecca is caught. She is ballsy. She called Morelli when we were outside and working with the police to document the damage to the window. She wanted to know if she could come over for the evening. He told her that he was here, and that he didn't know how long he would be. She's a good actress. She pretended to be ignorant of everything that has gone on and was very supportive to him. If he hadn't heard her himself and recognized her voice, it would have been hard for him to believe that she was responsible."

"It's too bad that we couldn't record the phone call when she called me."

"We actually did. Leo got it and has already emailed a copy of it to Morelli."

I smiled. "What did you need to do now?"

"You mentioned that you need to do work for the office this weekend?"

"I do. I know I haven't seen you much this week, but do you mind if we do work this evening? I'm a little behind with having to spend so much time at my apartment yesterday."

"That works well for me. I have written my report that I needed to get done this weekend, but I still have to edit it before I send it off. It will allow me to lie in bed tomorrow morning rather than get up early to do the work."

"So that would be until what – six-thirty?"

Ranger laughed. "I was actually thinking seven, smartass."

"I'm planning on sleeping until nine or ten." I paused. "Maybe eleven."

Ranger's lip twitched upwards. "Who said anything about sleeping?" he said. He bent down and gave me a kiss, and he trailed his hand down my front in a way that wasn't office-appropriate, and just about when I was ready to disregard everything that I needed to do, shut down my office, and go upstairs with him, he leaned back. I moaned. "That's a precursor for what we will be doing tonight", he said, "and I am going to make you scream my name before we are done."

I smiled. "I bet you can't."

"Make you scream?" Ranger looked surprised. He could always make me scream.

"Yes."

Ranger smiled a sexy little half-smile. "You're on. In a couple of hours. I have to do work first."

I sighed and his lips twitched again. He walked out of my office to his, but I noticed that he was walking a little awkwardly.

I grinned and picked up my piece of apple cinnamon bread. It didn't matter if I screamed or not. As my peewee soccer coach used to say, it isn't whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game that counts. And I knew that Ranger was a very good player and could always score a goal.


	18. Chapter 18

Ranger slept in all the way to seven-thirty. He had been very tired. Of course, we'd had a very active night as well. I blushed as I remembered screaming not once, not twice, but five times in the night. When Ranger got out of bed, I barely even registered his movement. I vaguely remember trying to pull him back to bed, and his laughter as he extricated himself from my arms. I faintly remember him telling me that he wanted to go for a workout, and then I don't remember anything after that.

I woke up more fully about two hours later, as I heard the door close on the apartment and Ranger walk through to the dressing room to take off his workout gear. I pretended to be asleep as he crept through the bedroom to the bathroom, and I waited until the shower got going and I heard Ranger shut the shower door again.

I smiled as I got out of bed and padded through to the bathroom. Ranger had his back to me as he showered, and I approached him and opened the door. He jumped, spun around, and had me in a choke hold before he even registered that it was me. "I'm sorry", I said. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"I thought you were asleep", he said. His face flushed as he released me from his hold.

I twisted around until I was facing him, and kiss his pecs and rubbed his back in comfort.

Ranger looked like he was filled with self-recriminations. "Hey", I said. "No harm, no foul." Ranger smiled sadly. "Do you think you can make me scream in the shower?" I said.

That comment seemed to chase the sadness from his eyes. "Can't see why not. I've made you scream every time so far", he said.

"You're a cocky bastard, aren't you?"

Ranger grinned. "You're only half right. I'm not a bastard."

I laughed, a laugh that soon turned into a moan as his head descended and our mouths meshed and our tongues touched. And as his lips descended to the nether regions he proved, once again, that he was right and that I would never tire of being wrong with him.

Ranger's shower was a double enclosure, with body sprays and a double rainfall showerhead. It was the biggest shower that I had ever seen, and we used every inch of it. By the time we had finished…showering…Ranger and I were lobster red and wrinkly and satiated. We dried off and, as Ranger shaved away his stubble, I toweled off and sat on the closed toilet seat to watch him.

I loved watching him shave. I loved the quiet start to the day, loved seeing the flex of his arm as he scraped away his whiskers. I loved the scent of the shea aftershave he used afterwards and the smooth softness of his cheeks when he was finished. It was a much nicer way to start the day than the harsh way I did, with the noise of the hair dryer blasting in my ear.

I could often tell how Ranger was feeling with the expression on his face when he was shaving. It was like, when he was shaving, he forgot to be closed off and private, he forgot about protecting himself and his loved ones, and he just was. He said that I was the only person who had watched him shave before. When he shaved in the army, the other men were doing their own ablutions and weren't paying attention to him. And when he lived with Rachel, she had never bothered to watch him. Personally, I found the interplay of emotions on his face while he was shaving to be fascinating.

Today, Ranger looked introspective. He was obviously working something through in his own mind, so I waited and watched. As he did his final swipe with the razor and used a hot facecloth to wash off the remaining bits of foam, he said, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" I thought I had a pretty good idea, but I thought it would be better for him if he verbalized it.

"For attacking you. I shouldn't have done that."

"No, it's okay. I shouldn't have surprised you. You are always so aware of everything that happens around you that it took me by surprise that you weren't aware of me being there. I forget sometimes that you are human and not a superhero."

Ranger smiled. "What superhero would I be?"

"That's easy. As Lula says, you're like Batman. You wear black, you're always there when you are needed, you live in the Batcave, and you work to protect the citizens of Gotham City." Ranger smiled. "So, Batman, what were you thinking about that made you so jumpy?"

"I was thinking about Lydia being abducted a few months ago and how pulverized I would be if you were taken and I couldn't get to you." Lydia and Matt were friends of Ranger's that he knew through his work with PMC. Matt was the head trainer. A few months before, Lydia was abducted while she was out for a run. Ranger flew in to lead the search and rescue for her. Luckily they found her quickly and unharmed, but it was a scary time for everyone. It happened just at the beginning of our romantic relationship and was when Ranger told me of the covert work that he did, and the need for me to be tracked at all times.

"That's why I wear my watch though."

"I don't think I could cope if you didn't wear your watch. I had dinner with Lydia and Matt and their family when I was in town this week. It brought it all up again."

"How are they doing?"

"They are settling into life again. Lydia has had to go through counseling. Matt said that he has an appointment scheduled with a counselor as well. I think it will be good for him. I took down watches with trackers in them for their three kids. Matt and Lydia were grateful. They have been battling with wanting to let their kids be kids while still increasing security. It's been a struggle."

"I can't imagine how difficult it must be."

"I hope you never have to."

"So you were thinking about Lydia being snatched when I startled you?"

"I was. As I was shaving, I was thinking that I need to work with you some more on what you need to do if someone grabs you from behind. As you just proved to me, no one is immune."

"You've taught me lots of things that I can do if someone caught me from behind."

"You could use more training." Ranger caught me in a hug. "I just want you – need you – to be safe. You're my life, babe."

I snuggled into his body, and didn't complain when he held me a little too tight. His hands rubbed me up and down my spine, I think more to reassure himself than to reassure me, and he kissed me lightly on the top of my head. "Ranger?" I said. He stopped nuzzling my head. "You're my life as well. So you have to work just as hard at keeping yourself safe as you do at keeping me safe. Because if something ever happened to you, I wouldn't want to go on."

Ranger lifted my chin until he could kiss me on the lips. "Now you know how I feel", he said.

We finished getting ready for the day as Ranger said, "have you been to the range while I've been gone?"

I grimaced. Although I was a much better shot now than I was a few months ago, I would never be as good a shot as Ranger was. He had told me that it didn't matter if I was as good a shot as he was. He said that I just had to be assured of getting a kill shot if I needed it, and when I wrinkled my nose and started to complain about that concept, he said that I had to be assured of hitting the felon in the arm or leg if need be, rather than have the bullet go wide and kill the person by mistake. That concept was much easier for me to swallow, and it sometimes even worked to get me down to the range to do some practicing.

"I've been awfully busy", I said.

Ranger smiled slightly. "Babe. It's a condition of your employment. You know that. You have to wear your gun at all times, and you have to be proficient and comfortable in shooting it. That's why all Operations employees are paid for ten extra hours a week for training purposes. I have booked the range for ten minutes from now."

I grimaced again.

"Practicing in the range or working out in the gym are just as important as the people you are researching, babe. As you can tell by Rebecca, not all people are nice or fair about their interactions with others. Unfortunately, you work in an area of society that has a more-than-normal percentage of unfair people. That isn't a result of anything you've done. It's solely a result of the segment of society we work with. If you choose to work in that segment of society, you have to be prepared to defend yourself."

I sighed, and Ranger stepped back. He walked over to the gun safe and unlocked it. He pulled out his gun belt and attached it at his waist, and he handed me my thigh holster and waited until I had strapped it on. "Let's go", he said. He captured my hand and walked with me out the door of the apartment. I waited until he locked the door.

"Ranger?" I said.

"Yes?"

"Why do you bother locking your door? First of all, we live in the most secure building in all of Trenton. No one could get from the street to your apartment. Second of all, if there was a need to get in, I think I would be the only person who couldn't get in, either by lock picks or by forcing the door open."

"That's not entirely true. That door is a wooden door, but it specially designed to be a fire door. Because of that, it is also stronger than a standard door, and with the metal frame around the door and the complexity of the hardware that was chosen, it would be hard to either break down the door to get in or to pick the lock. However, you are right in that most people in the company would be able to figure out a way to get in. The lock isn't to stop people from breaking in. It's to slow people down so that the control room has time to send someone up to investigate."

"Oh. I've often wondered. After all, I broke into your apartment and no one stopped me."

"The first time you came to my apartment the control room called me the second you appeared on the screen and asked what they should do. I told them to let you stay at my place. You weren't really breaking in. You had approval. You just didn't know it."

I smiled. "I thought I was being so stealthy."

Ranger thought about smiling. "Babe", he said.


	19. Chapter 19

My grandmother was standing at the front door, her nose pressed to the glass so that she could see out much like a little kid would look in the window. She had baby Edmund in her arms and was valiantly pointing out various features of the street, and Edmund waved his fists in the air and screamed his lungs out while just as valiantly ignoring her.

The fact that Edmund was there told me that Valerie and her husband Albert and their four girls were accompanying Edmund to the house for dinner. It would be a full house, and my mother would love every minute of it.

We walked into the house and stooped down to kiss my grandmother on her cheek. After we kicked off our shoes, Grandma handed the baby to me. "Valerie and Albert are lying down", she yelled above the crying. "They said that they need sleep and that they haven't slept in days."

I looked down at Edmund. His face was scrunched up and red, and his hands and feet were flailing everywhere.

"Where are the girls?" I said.

"They escaped and are playing tag out in the backyard", said Grandma. "They're the smart ones. As soon as Edmund started to cry, they left the house."

I put Edmund up on my shoulder and rocked him in the way that I had seen Valerie do time and time again. It didn't work. I patted his back. That didn't work. I jiggled him up and down. That didn't work. I begged him to be quiet. That didn't work either. I guess I was starting to look frantic, because Ranger took Edmund from me, put him on his shoulder, and gave him a few firm pats on the back. Edmund let out an enormous belch, drooled over Ranger's shirt, snuffled softly and nestled his head into the crook of his shoulder, stuffed his thumb into his mouth and promptly fell asleep.

"Thank God", said my father. He turned the volume down on the television to a normal level again and looked at Ranger. "He's been crying for the last two hours. I don't know how Valerie and Albert do it. I'm glad my girls weren't criers."

"They were", said my mother as she came out of the kitchen and gave me a hug and a kiss, and carefully gave one to Ranger so as to not disturb the sleeping baby. "You just slept through it."

"Hunh", said my father. "I don't remember that."

"Steph was more of the crier than Valerie was. Valerie just cried when something didn't go right. For example, she would wail whenever her diaper was dirty. You would think that the world was ending when she had a dirty diaper. With Steph, she cried a lot for the first four months. But once we started feeding her solid foods, she stopped crying. I think the problem was that she was hungry." She turned to Ranger and smiled. "You have the magic touch."

Ranger looked embarrassed. "My daughter was a crier. After she was about a month old, I was out of the country. But for the first month I spent a lot of time with her trying to settle her so that Rachel could sleep. We worked shifts. Rachel would cover the day shift and I would cover the night shift. It was an exhausting month and I have to admit that I was glad when I was allowed to escape."

"How did Rachel cope with you gone?" asked my mother.

"She moved into her mother's house for the next eleven months."

"When did you get back from your tour?" said Grandma.

"When Julie was almost a year and a half, but by then Rachel and I had split up and there was no real reason to stay home, so I signed up for another tour. Rachel and I had just grown too far apart to make it as a couple, but we have a good friendship now. Our divorce was amicable – so much so that, when she married her current husband, her mother and father had already died and she asked me whether I would give her away. Ron is a much better person for her than I would ever be and I get along with him well."

"Do you see Julie much?" said my grandmother.

"No, we aren't close. Rachel is really good about sending photos and regular updates by email, and I talk to Julie about once a week for a few minutes, but I don't really know her. I see her twice a year usually – Thanksgiving and Easter – although sometimes I'm invited for something special at other times as well. Ron is an excellent father to her, and Rachel is a fabulous mother. Julie really lucked out."

"I look forward to meeting her", said Grandma.

"Stephanie would be a good mother", said my mother. She led us into the kitchen, and Grandma and Mom and I sat down. Ranger continued to stand and sway and, since it was working and Edmund continued to sleep, I didn't want to encourage him to sit.

"Oh, no", I said. "I'm a good hamster owner. As long as you change his water and feed him, he pretty well takes care of himself. My life and my lifestyle don't support having children."

"But if you wanted them, you could make it work."

"That's the thing, Mom. We don't want them."

My Mom's eyes were starting to look a little glassy and her face was beginning to glow as she took another sip of the whiskey she had in front of her. "You two would be wonderful parents", she said. "And you have that wonderful apartment to bring your babies home from the hospital to."

Ranger smiled. "I don't think I'd be a particularly good father, but I would do whatever it took to keep my family safe."

My grandmother sat forward in her chair and moved her dentures around in her mouth with her tongue. "Does this mean that Stephanie isn't safe?" she said, her eyes bright with interest.

I tensed. I knew that Ranger had to answer this very carefully to avoid my grandmother making up stories about how I was living in danger because my boyfriend led a dangerous life. I was sure that, by the end of the conversation that my grandmother would likely have with the other old cronies at the Cut 'n Curl, I would be in terrible danger and locked in a tower, hair hanging out the window, ready for my prince to save me. The problem was that my hair was too short and I had never been interested in a prince. Give me a good superhero any day and I'd be your gal. But princes just seemed namby-pamby and as though they would require far too much work to keep happy.

Ranger smiled. "I have learned in this business that there isn't a single person on this planet who is safe. Everyone is in danger. I work to eradicate people's danger, and to ensure that people can live as full a life as they can as safely as they can. Is Stephanie in danger? Not any more than she was in before we got together. The danger is manageable and there are safety checks that we have put into place so that the danger is less than she was in previously. However, adding a child to the mix would be problematic. Kids don't always have a good sense of what is appropriate and what isn't appropriate, and they wouldn't conform to the erratic hours that we keep."

My grandmother leaned forward again. I groaned as I saw her excitement. "But is Stephanie about to become mob meat or something like that?"

I looked sharply at my grandmother. "What? Why would you say something like that, Grandma? Why do you think that I have something to do with the mob?"

"I heard from Elsa Graham who heard from Justine Peters who heard from Sandra Leiberman that your apartment was torched by a member of the mob."

"Ma!" said my mother.

"What? That's what I heard", said my grandmother. She looked at the two of us like I look at pineapple upside-down cake at my mother's – always wondering whether I'd been good enough to get another piece.

"It's true that someone has targeted me", I said. My mother turned white and crossed herself, then belted back the rest of her drink. "However, we have the situation under control. Whenever I am out of the building I will be taking two guards with me, people who will be paid to watch my back."

"You don't have two guards with you now", said my grandmother.

"That's because I have Ranger here with me", I said. "He is worth two normal guards any day, and could probably take on four felons at once with ease and still come out the winner."

Ranger smiled slightly. "Maybe not four, but three should be a breeze", he said.

Valerie and Albert came down to the kitchen. Valerie was my sister, and she was perfect in every way until she got pregnant before getting married. Now that she was married, she had regained her 'saint' status. Everything went right for Val growing up. She was the kid who didn't have acne, who didn't suffer from period cramps, who never had a messy breakup with her boyfriend. She essentially was a tough act to follow – especially because I did have acne, period cramps, and messy breakups with all my boyfriends. She was a good mother and a nice person who puts up with and apparently loves her husband. Albert was an overgrown teddy bear of a man, pudgy and with a receding hairline and naturally bushy hair that always seemed to be out of place. He was awkward and despite loving people was not good with them. He often had verbal diarrhea and tried harder than anyone I had ever met. I liked Albert a lot. He reminded me in many ways of Bob, Morelli's over-affectionate and overenthusiastic dog.

"Did you kill Edmund?" said Val. I couldn't tell if she sounded horrified or relieved by the concept.

"No", said my mother. She smiled. "Ranger is a natural with babies."

"I wish I was a natural with babies", said Albert. "I was saying that the other day to Valerie, that I wished that I was a natural with babies. Didn't I say that, sweetums?"

Val ignored her husband and ogled Ranger, and I could see her fascination. Ranger, with his solid build and well-defined muscles, made Edmund look impossibly tiny and fragile, and the protective pose that Ranger had with the baby on his shoulder was incredibly hot.

Ranger looked at Valerie undressing him with her eyes, and his face flushed. He moved the baby off his shoulder and handed him to Val. As soon as Edmund was moved away from Ranger, he woke up and started to wail again. "Damn, there goes my milk", said Val. She lifted her top and positioned Edmund so that he could start to feed, and he made little piggy grunting noises as he slurped up his dinner.

"That works every time", said Albert. "I can see why Edmund likes Val's breasts. I like her breasts too, and milk is awesome. It has to be the best tasting food around. That's what I always say to the girls. I always tell them to drink milk because it is so good for you. I like to drink some milk every night before bed."

"Doesn't that take milk away from Edmund?" said my grandmother. I was glad that she mentioned it. I had wanted to, but I looked at Ranger's face just before I said it and wasn't sure if the stillness in his face was because he was marshaling all his self-control not to laugh, or whether he was just flabbergasted by watching the train wreck of Albert come charging through.

"Edmund doesn't drink milk. Not yet. He's a talented boy, but he doesn't drink milk yet. He has a good set of lungs on him though. I keep saying to Valerie that he might become an opera singer. I can almost see him up on the stage singing away. I often think that his crying sounds much like music already and I know that he will grow up to be big and famous. He's just practicing now and developing his lungs so that he can sing on the stage."

"He does have a real good set of lungs on him", said Grandma.

"He does. I was thinking of signing him up for singing lessons, but Valerie says that we have to wait until he can talk. I just want to get him started on his future now. I mean, we already have a horse in the family. Why can't we have a singer as well?" Mary Alice, who was the second oldest child, had for years thought of herself as a horse. She would smile when you called her a filly and she would paw the ground and flick her mane when she was angry. We humored her and hoped that she would grow out of this stage soon. Val said that it was embarrassing to introduce her to strangers because she would whinny a hello. For Christmas, I had decided to give Angie, the oldest, and Mary Alice each a special trip, just the two of us, to do something that they would like. I thought I might take Angie to a bookstore and let her pick a book of her choosing, and then take her out for a meal. For Mary Alice, I will do the same thing but instead of taking her to a bookstore I'd take her to a stable to see some horses. I thought both of them would like to have some one-on-one time with an adult, without one of their three baby siblings around. With Angie and Mary Alice being from Val's first marriage and them being at least seven years older than the other children, I thought the change in family circumstance, as happy as they might be about it, still had to be hard.

"That's true", said Ranger. "You can never start your kids off on their career path too young. When did you decide to become a lawyer?"

"I don't know", said Albert. "My father was a lawyer, so it was just assumed that I would become a lawyer. It's not that I always wanted to be a lawyer, but when my father asked what I wanted to do when I grew up I said I didn't know, but once I told him that I wanted to become a lawyer and that made him very happy, so from that point on I said that I wanted to become a lawyer. It wasn't that I really wanted to be one. And when it was time to go to law school I barely passed the LSATs, but my father got me accepted with his old alma mater, and then I was going to law school. I didn't want to tell my father that I didn't want to go, so I just continued to go. And voila! Now I'm a real lawyer."

"Do you like law?" I said.

"I like making people happy. I don't like it when people are fighting with each other, or when people get mad. Sometimes I just have to put clients in time-out until they can learn to use their words. I always say to them, 'use your words', don't I, sweetums? Sometimes they get so mad that they leave."

"Do they leave because you are telling them to use their words?" I said.

"I don't know, but sometimes they don't come back. Although, to be honest, it's quite common for people to leave and not come back. I don't know why they don't come back. Valerie calls them to remind them of their appointment and they say that they are going to come, but then they don't show up and I don't know why. They never give an explanation. They just don't show up. It's very confusing, not knowing why they aren't coming back to their appointments."

"Does that happen often?" I said.

"Yes. At least seventy percent of people don't come back after my first meeting with them. I don't understand it. Valerie is very good about getting their contact information and she sends them a bill for the first meeting, but not everyone pays the bill either. I think they are waiting for me to set up another appointment with them, don't you? I mean, if I had only met them one time I wouldn't have a full understanding of the issue nor would I have solved anything. I don't know why I'm not busier."

"You should get a partner to work with, and that way you can pool office expenses and save money", I said. "I mean, I don't know a lot about your operation, but wouldn't it make sense to pool resources?"

"That would", said Albert, "but I tried to find someone interested in partnering with me and I couldn't find anyone. I would like to have a partner. Sometimes it gets lonely at the office, especially when Valerie isn't there. I don't have enough clients to keep me busy. Do you ever need a lawyer for your office?" he said to Ranger.

"Thank you, but I have a lawyer in house that does the work for me. He's worked with me for a few years now, and he handles all my contract work", said Ranger.

"That's the problem I am finding with many of the companies that I call to ask them if they need a lawyer. I can do a wide variety of law, but do a lot of family law. I specialize in divorces. If you ever need someone to help you through a divorce, I'm your guy."

"Albert", said Valerie, "Ranger is with Stephanie. We don't want to encourage him to divorce her."

Albert flushed. "I didn't mean to encourage you to divorce Stephanie. I just meant that, if you ever wanted to break up with anyone, I would be able to help you through that. Not that you'd want to break up with Stephanie. I don't want that to happen. I just wanted to let you know that I'd be willing to help out with any of your legal needs."

As my mother looked forlornly into her whiskey glass and then looked at the whiskey cabinet, obviously trying to decide if she was too hammered to have another shot, Ranger smiled. "Thank you for the offer", he said. "I'll keep it in mind."


	20. Chapter 20

"I'm sorry", I said as we drove away from my parents'. "I love my family, but they are all characters. I mean, it was difficult to not laugh when Albert was talking about his love of milk."

Ranger thought about smiling. "I like Albert. He reminds me of a gangly puppy that hasn't yet grown into his feet. He tries so hard."

"He does. I actually think that he is a lovable person."

"He is. His tendency to spew words when he is uncomfortable is related to his lack of self-esteem. He would have been better in a different job other than a lawyer. I could be wrong, but I don't think law is a profession he excels in."

"I agree with you, but I don't know what sort of profession he would be good in."

"I was trying to figure that out tonight as well. I didn't come up with anything, but I think it would have to be something that gave him a sense of purpose and a sense of pride."

"I know." I paused. "So my mother, once again, thinks of you as perfect father material."

"Why? Because I settled Edmund?"

"Yes. She told me while we were doing dishes and you spent some time with my dad watching the hockey game that I should snap you up. She even suggested me getting pregnant now to lock you into a marriage. She said that you had proved that you would marry me in that instance just because you married Rachel."

"You know I can't marry again, don't you? While I would love to marry you, I don't want a public record of our union."

"I know. I understand and accept that. The most important thing to me is that we are together. We are living as though we are married, and that's the most important thing of all."

He lifted my hand and kissed my fingers. "It's the most important thing to me as well. I love you."

I smiled. I loved him too. But even though I loved him and was incredibly happy to be living with him, I would have liked to have the permanence of being married. As much as I was comfortable in my decision to live with him, my good Catholic upbringing said that living together without the words spoken between us and the promise made in front of God was wrong, and I didn't know how to reconcile my Catholic morality with the reality of our lack of commitment.

I had lived with two other men during my life. The first, Dickie, I had been married to. I had been committed to him but he hadn't been committed to me. Despite making the union permanent, the marriage broke up after three months. The second person I lived with, Morelli, lasted a month longer, but for the last month of our time living together we knew that the circumstances had an expiration date. I loved Morelli, but I wasn't committed to him. I had only lived with Ranger permanently for two weeks and mostly for the three months prior, but already I could tell that this relationship didn't have an expiration date. It felt more permanent than either of my previous two partners and I couldn't imagine ever wanting to leave him. I was committed to him, and I wanted to get up in front of God and proclaim that union.

While I'd like my family and friends to be there, I also knew that it wasn't my family's and friends' acceptance of Ranger in my life that made me want to get married to him. It was God's. I may not be devout like my mother or go to church on a regular basis, but I still had the values that I had been raised with. I didn't know how I could reconcile the reality of my living situation with my moral upbringing. I sighed.

"Penny for your thoughts?" said Ranger.

I smiled sadly. "They aren't worth that much", I said. There was no way that I was going to ever put that kind of pressure on Ranger. He had always been upfront with me about his inability to marry, and he didn't deserve me telling him that I was unhappy with the score now that we'd started to play the music.

We arrived at the Rangeman building and parked, and as we waited for the elevator I looked at him and assessed his mood. He was very quiet, even for him, and that worried me. I didn't want him to suspect that I was at all uncomfortable with our living situation. However, although he was especially quiet, he looked more like he was thinking about things, like he was in the same sort of introspective mood that I was in. I wanted to ask him what he was thinking, but I knew that I would be wasting my breath. Ranger was a private person that, no matter how close we were as a couple, still kept his own counsel and didn't share easily.

I could understand that. I shared easily and said that my life was an open book, but I rather thought that there were few people who truly knew and understood me. Family and good friends saw the person I wanted to portray, and they thought that they knew the real me – but they knew the public me rather than the private one. I held tight to all my private hopes and fears and insecurities. Ranger saw those though, and he still loved me anyway. Dickie never saw any of them, and the rest of my friends and my family saw some of them but not all – only the ones that I was willing to share. I shared more with Morelli than most people, but I didn't share with him the way I shared with Ranger. Trust did not come easily to me. I was open with people, but I still hid a lot of myself. Maybe that was true with everyone.

But I did trust Ranger, and he was the first person that I felt that way about. I think that was the way that I knew we had a good relationship, and the reason that I could see committing myself to him in a more formal way. I didn't think that I could say the same about him though. I knew that, as much as he had let me in more than anyone else in his life and as much as he trusted me to hold his secrets and to treat his love gently, he would never be someone who felt comfortable sharing much of himself. I knew him – but I didn't know him at the same time. However, I rather thought that I knew him better than almost everyone else and I felt honored that he allowed me to see as much as I did. I also thought that I would never tire from the quest to figure him out, and I would enjoy doing so over the upcoming months and years.

We walked into the apartment and Ranger turned on the lights, threw his keys onto the hall table, and helped me out of my coat. I put my purse down as he hung up our outerwear, and he turned to me and gathered me into his arms. "I love you", he said.

"I love you too."

He kissed me deeply and massaged my side from hip to breast, grazing all the interesting parts with his thumb. I broke the kiss to strip off my top, and he picked me up and carried me into the bedroom and kicked the door shut. He placed me on my feet again and slowly peeled off my jeans until I was standing in front of him in my bra and panty set. As he admired me, his eyes dilated black with arousal, I slowly undid my bra and slid off my panties. Ranger's breath came hard and fast.

"You have far too many clothes on", I said.

Ranger smiled a sexy little half-smile. "And they are going to stay on. I want to worship every inch of you tonight. I want you to feel how much I love you, want to make you understand, to the depths of your being, that you are my soul mate. If I take my clothes off, it will all be over much too soon and all you will understand is that I find you incredibly sexy." He helped me down onto the bed and parted my thighs and knelt in front of me, and my last thought as he washed me away on a wave of overwhelming pleasure was that he called me his soul mate.

The next morning, I woke up to Ranger's alarm. I held onto him tightly as he moved to get out of the bed, and I could feel his chest rumble with a quiet laugh. "No-o-o", I said, and I dropped my hand to his midsection. He paused. As my exploration was just getting interesting, he pulled out of my arms. "Not today, babe. I have a breakfast meeting this morning with a client, and I have to be out of the apartment by seven. I don't even have time for a full workout this morning."

"Is this for a new client?"

"It is. It will be a good company to sign on. They have recently gone through a bout where they had to fire and charge a group of about twenty people who were stealing from the company. They are nervous about their other employees and will want us to assess all future employees for security risks. This job is entirely in your wheelhouse. If I can sign them on, there will be another five hundred employees to research, so I'm hoping that you get caught up on your skip tracing today. I'll need as much time as you can spare."

"Whew! Okay. We'll try our best. I have about another four or five days of researching to do for Bordin still. Needing to do the research for Joe last week really put me behind."

"I know, and we may have more research like that in the future." He walked into the dressing room and, as he put on his workout gear, he said, "the other main security risk in their company, from what I can see, is through their firewalls. They simply aren't strong enough. I hope to sell the owner on our service to protect his IT processes. While we have almost completely sold them on your research abilities, we haven't yet sold them on our IT capabilities. It will hopefully be a fruitful meeting."

"What time will you be back from your workout?"

"About six-thirty. If they sign on with us, I'm thinking of moving Miguel off patrol for a few days to help you with your research." Miguel was the person who formerly covered the research desk. He hated it, however, and prostrated himself at my feet in gratitude when I came on board. Ranger told him at the time that he would schedule him to do patrols and to monitor the accounts but that, if the research desk got too busy, Miguel and I would be sharing the research responsibilities. Miguel had been thrilled to not have to cover the overflow at all since I took over the desk. "Five hundred new employees to research is an enormous influx of research work for you, and I recognize that it will be a book of work that would be difficult for you to get through without falling down on your other responsibilities. Alternatively, you can pass your skip tracing through to Rangeman staff and have my guys pick up your skips while you do the research work. In that case, I would ask you to create the apprehension plan for the skips and just let us do the captures. For this, you would get sixty percent of your capture fee and, because I know that Lula supplements her income through the money she earns through supporting you when you do captures and she wouldn't be supporting you with these captures, Lula would still be earning ten percent of the capture fees. Rangeman would get the remaining thirty percent."

"That doesn't seem fair."

"It's entirely fair since you will be doing us a favor. I know that research isn't your favorite thing to do, but we will really need you to do the work. You're the best researcher we've ever had. Like Bordin, this will be an excellent company to sign on." He walked out of the dressing room and into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

I got up and followed him into the washroom, and leaned against the doorjamb as I watched him brush, rinse and spit. "I'll think about it and decide what is best for me to do. The problem is that I like skip tracing, and I like the variety in my job that doing captures gives me."

"I know you do, which is why I'm not suggesting to you that you quit skip tracing entirely. No matter how beneficial I think that would be for Rangeman, I don't think it would be good for you personally. You being happy is more important to me than anything else." He dried off his face, gave me a kiss, and passed me to leave the bedroom. "Think about it, okay?" he said. "Just let me know what you would like to do. We have a lot of options ahead of us."

"Okay", I said. I followed him to the door of the apartment, gave him another kiss, and when he left the apartment I put on a pot of coffee. Glad that we had gone to bed early the night before, I thought that I could see many early nights in my immediate future. It sounded like I would need my rest. Then I thought about how we had spent the early time in bed and I smiled. I may not have rested for the first hour after we had gone to bed, but I had relaxed. And being so busy would mean that relaxation was equally as important as rest.

I walked into the bathroom, used the facilities and brushed my teeth, and turned on the shower. I had a quick wash, shaved, and five minutes later was out of the shower and toweling off. I dried my hair, slathered on moisturizer and applied my makeup for the day, and dressed in a long-sleeved pale blue t-shirt, a pair of yoga pants, and my bulletproof vest. By the time Ranger got back from his workout, I had consumed my first cup of coffee and was working on my second, and was sitting at his desk doing some work on my capture plans.

Ranger looked surprised to see me up. There had been few times during our relationship that I had ever gotten up at the same time as Ranger, and had only occurred when there was something upsetting me in my life. So Ranger was shocked to see me awake and, as he stripped his workout clothes off his body and put them in the dirty clothes basket, he called out, "talk to me."

I came through from the den and smiled at him. "Nothing is wrong", I said. "I just have a lot to do today."

Ranger looked concerned. "Being busy is all well and good, but it isn't good if you aren't getting your sleep."

"I know, but we went to bed early last night. I'm good to go today."

"Are you sure that nothing is wrong?"

I smiled at him, and he took a moment to assess my face. "Nothing is wrong", I said. "I'm just figuring out what needs to be done still on the Bordin account, I'm setting up the capture plans for the skips today, and I'm setting up a schedule to get caught up on my research files so that I can open up a chunk of time for this new account."

Ranger must have been appeased with what he saw in my face, since he smiled and kissed me lightly. "Come tell me your capture plan for your skips today", he said. "And remember, if you don't want to go skip tracing today and instead want to do research, Miguel and Ramon can do your captures in your stead."

"I appreciate that you are giving me a number of options."

"This has to work for both us personally as well as for the company", he said. He turned on the shower and, when the water had heated up, he stepped inside.

"There are four skips to capture today, and I'd like to do one of them for sure. I have already done a lot of the setup and the searching for him, and I'd like to see him through the system. However, the other three are new skips to me and, although I have created their capture plans, I haven't done any of the surveillance work or done an approach on them yet. I can pass those files over to Rangeman to do. The one skip that I am chasing, Declan Willis, I am hoping to get this morning and to let Rangeman do the other three afterwards. This makes sense, because the person who we are capturing goes to college and it will be best to capture him before he leaves for class for the day."

"That sounds good. What did he do?"

"He's a house mover. I told you about him two weeks ago. The kid hopped into a truck that was moving a heritage building from one property to another. He stole the house and took it for a joyride and, when he tried to pass under a bridge, he got stuck. The house was demolished and the road was tied up for hours while they cleaned up the fallen bricks and roofing shingles and things. The kid, when he got stuck, ran away. The police caught him easily and, when they asked him what he was doing, he said that he was delivering the bridge and had lost the address, and he was leaving the truck to go and find it again."

Ranger chuckled. "He may not be smart, but I have to give him marks for ingenuity."

I laughed.

"Tell me about the other three", said Ranger.

"Another one is also a house mover, but he bought a moving truck and, when the homeowners were away for the weekend, he drove his truck up to the house and started loading everything in. A sharp-eyed neighbor reported the theft-in-progress, and he was caught red-handed. He said that he was contracted for the service, but since the police found signs of forcible entry and the neighbor reported that the homeowners were planning on being away from the house for the weekend, they arrested him anyway."

"That was a good scam, but hard to execute with a good neighborhood-watch program."

"That's true. The second is for a drunk and disorderly charge, and the third is for a domestic assault charge. The officers who tried to pick up the last were attacked by the felon, so I think he has an anger management problem and, in all honesty, I'm glad that Rangeman will be doing the capture on him. The arresting officer was a female, and I suspect that he has a vendetta of sorts against females."

"I'm glad you aren't doing that capture then either", said Ranger. He stepped out of the shower and dried off, and wrapped his towel around his waist. He walked over to the sink and wet his face down, grabbed his shaving brush, and worked some shaving soap into a lather. He spread it on his face and proceeded to scrape his whiskers off, then rinsed his face and wiped the rest of the lather away with a washcloth. He dried his skin and spread on a little moisturizing aftershave balm.

"I'm always surprised that you put moisturizer on your skin", I said. "You're so badass that I never think of you as doing something so good for your skin. Of course, you having a signature scent always surprises me as well. I love the scent on you and find it incredibly sexy, but I wouldn't have expected it of you. Instead, I would have expected you to use a bar of Irish Spring."

Ranger laughed. "Irish Spring's scent is too strong. I find that, if I don't use the shea aftershave balm on my face, my skin gets inflamed and upset, and more likely to react to the elements. Now that winter is starting, I will have to be especially vigilant with my skin care." He hung up his towel and walked, naked, into the dressing room. "I was thinking", he said, "about this apartment."

"What about it?"

"If I build another building and am housing all the staff apartments there, I was wondering whether it made sense to move our apartment over as well. I was also thinking of moving Ella and Luis over, and potentially adding another larger apartment and letting Tank stay in it. The reason that we don't allow pets in the staff apartments is because the efficiency apartments aren't big enough. However, if we gave Tank a bigger apartment he would have much more space, and I think it would be a good perk for him. He works hard and a lot of hours, and having him onsite would be helpful for both him and us. Also, if we moved over Ella's and our apartments, there would be an additional two floors of space for us to work with for offices."

"What would you do with all the extra space?"

"We would have too much space at first, but if we continue to grow as quickly as we have been, we'll need the space. Our company has mushroomed quickly and it doesn't show any signs of stopping. This building was too large when we built it as well."

"If you move around everyone, where will they all go?"

"That's something I still have to work out. What do you think about having an apartment in a different configuration? We could ask the architect to build in some spare rooms, perhaps one for Julie or a guest bedroom so that we could have Angie and Mary Alice stay overnight at times. I know that you worry about them and the changes that they have had to absorb."

"It would be nice to have a room for Julie, and you're right in that I do worry about the two older girls. What are you envisioning size-wise?"

"I was thinking of making the floors a bit bigger than this one so that the efficiency apartments are bigger than they currently are. The efficiency apartments are nice, but they are a little cramped for the people who live there permanently. They were originally designed to be dedicated but temporary housing for the ERTs. I had thought that people would only use them when they were on-call. However, most ERT staff has chosen to live onsite."

"How big do you want them to be?"

"I'd love to see the apartments with separate living areas and bathrooms rather than their studio configuration right now, so that the apartments are smaller one-bedroom apartments. So right now the apartments are three hundred square feet and I'd like to increase the size of the apartments to double that size. People like Hal take up a lot of space."

"So this would mean that your apartment would double in size as well?"

"Yes", he said.

"Your apartment is already enormous."

"I was thinking we could add some extra bedrooms, perhaps an office for you, perhaps a separate television room from my office. I think we could use the space."

"That's a lot of extra space."

"Babe, what happens if you get pregnant?"

"Say what? We don't want kids. You've always said that you don't want more kids, and I've never wanted them."

"We're not using condoms."

"I know, but I am careful about taking my birth control pills."

"You're two days late."

"I am?" I walked into the bathroom and looked at my pack. "How did you do that?"

Ranger smiled. "I'm a guy. I'm naturally inclined to know when your period is due."

"That explains why I'm so easily upset lately."

"Babe."

"Crap. Do you think I'm pregnant?"

"I don't know. Why don't I buy a test kit today? I think it would be better if we knew for sure."


	21. Chapter 21

_I've been talking to various readers, and it sounds like people have all been having difficult weeks. Mars must be in retrograde or something, because bad luck seems to be following everyone. I empathize. Trust me – I haven't been immune either. In an effort to cheer everyone up (including me!), here's a bonus chapter. As one reader said, reading is therapy. I hope everyone enjoys the weekend and your week improves._

_~ Sarah ~_

I couldn't get our conversation out of my head after Ranger left, and I was a little mad at Ranger for bringing the possibility up in my mind. Here I was, still getting comfortable with the concept that I was having an ongoing relationship with someone I didn't have a commitment with, and he drops the pregnancy scare on me? A wave of feeling overwhelmed washed over me, and tears came to my eyes.

I walked down to the break room to have my breakfast. I was hungry. That was a good sign that I wasn't pregnant, wasn't it? Didn't pregnant women feel sick? I didn't feel sick.

I selected a muffin, a yogurt parfait, and a fruit salad. I picked up a couple of peeled hard-boiled eggs and put them on a plate, and carried my food over to a table. Miguel and Ramon came into the break room and sat down. "Hey, chica. How is it going?" said Ramon.

I summoned up a smile. "It's busy", I said. "We're working on capturing one person together and I have developed capture plans on three more that I'm hoping that you'll pick up. I'm swamped at the research desk, so for the next little while I might be relying on Rangeman to pick up all my skips."

"Crap. That doesn't mean that I'll be called back to do research, does it?" said Miguel.

"That's an option that we are currently considering. If Ranger lands this contract this morning, we'll be adding another company to our roster that has five hundred employees. They will all need to be researched and, to be honest, I'm already behind on my research just because I had a special research project that I was doing last week that sucked up half my week."

"I had been looking forward to going skip chasing with you, but this news isn't making my day", said Miguel.

I laughed.

I put the last of my muffin in my mouth, deposited my dirty dishes in the bin, and poured myself a coffee to go. As I took a sip, I paused. Coffee was bad for babies, wasn't it? Crap, crap and double crap. There was another reason to not have kids. I think I would fall flat on my face asleep without coffee each day. I lived on the stuff.

I decided that, if I was pregnant, it would be very soon into the pregnancy and a little coffee wouldn't hurt the baby. Besides, I needed the energy. I was way too tired lately.

Oh, crap. That's a sign of pregnancy as well, wasn't it?

I blew out my panic and led Miguel and Ramon into my office and sat behind my desk. I pulled the four files out of my bag and handed them to the two men. They looked them over and turned to me. "Who are we going after first?"

"Declan Willis", I said. "I've been after him for a while, but I don't want to take him in front of his classmates. I never think that it makes sense."

"I can see that", said Ramon. "You would either martyr him or ostracize them, and neither is a good option."

"That's my thought as well. Nothing good can come of it."

"Okay", said Ramon. "Let's get this kid and teach him that it's not a good idea to jack a house and try to drive it down the street."

"That is so wrong on so many levels", said Miguel.

I laughed and followed them out of the office and locked my door. Then I led them down to the parking garage.

When we got to the car, Ramon got behind the wheel, Miguel got in the passenger seat and I climbed into the backseat. We drove directly to the Willis house. We all got out, and walked up to the door. Ramon and Miguel stood to the side, and I banged on the door and jumped to the other side. After a couple more bangings and the assurance of the neighbor that Declan hadn't left for school, Declan finally came to the door. His hair was all over the place, there was sleep in his eyes, and he had drool dried on his cheek. His eyes lit up when he saw me. "Well, hello", he said.

"Hi, I'm Stephanie Plum, this is Miguel and this is Ramon", I said. "We are here representing Vincent Plum Bail Bonds and we are here to take you back to the courts to get rescheduled."

"I don't want to go to court. It was all a misunderstanding."

"That may be, but you have to get the courts to disband your charge, and to get them to do that you need to go into the courts and explain why you didn't deserve to be charged. Until you do so, you are a wanted fugitive."

"Fugitives are on 'America's Most Wanted' television show. They have done terrible things. I simply have stolen a house. It's not like it is a criminal offense."

"Actually, it is", I said. "As I said, if you don't agree you have to go to court and explain this to the judge."

"I'm sorry. Not today", said Declan. He moved to shut the door, and Miguel whipped out his cuffs and slapped half on Declan's wrist. Declan pushed Miguel away, and Ramon stepped in and roughly grabbed Declan's other wrist. He spun Declan around and Miguel locked the other cuff on. "Wait", said Declan. "You can't take me in like this."

"Why not?" I said.

"I'm in my pajamas." I looked down at what he was wearing – glow-in-the-dark SpongeBob onesies.

"So?" said Miguel. "You could go in naked for all we care."

Declan looked shocked. "Surely you wouldn't take me in naked", he said.

I laughed. "It wouldn't be the first time. In fact, the first skip that I took in was naked. He was a nice older man who believed in letting it all hang out. He said his boys needed the air. The problem was that I had been driving a borrowed car, and the person I borrowed it from was horrified to know that someone had been sitting on his car seat bare-assed."

"Who did you borrow the car from?" said Miguel.

"Morelli", I said.

Ramon and Miguel laughed, and Declan looked horrified.

I took a step into the house to retrieve Declan's keys, when Declan started to scream. "Help!" he said. "They're kidnapping me."

I sighed. Sometimes the kids who weren't particularly smart were the toughest to bring in. I turned around, and the neighbor who had been watching said, "are you taking him to court?"

I pulled out my fake credentials and hoped that the neighbor didn't look too closely at them. Bounty hunters weren't issued credentials and all documentation was fake, bought off the internet. While I didn't like using it because of the uncertain origins and how easy it was to purchase, it did come in handy at times. This time was no exception. The neighbor looked at my badge and looked at Declan. "I'm sorry, sonny. This group is legit, and you have to go to court."

"But I didn't do anything wrong."

"I'm sorry", I said. "But stealing a house is doing something wrong."

"It was just a house. I don't see what the big deal was."

"It may be just a house, but you got that house stuck under the bridge. The house was destroyed and the roadway was shut down for hours. Emergency personnel had to be dispatched because a car was hit by falling bricks and a mother was hurt seriously in the accident. A mother broke her arm and is unable to pick up her baby when she cries because of your actions. So yes, it was just a house. But you caused a lot of damage that shouldn't have happened. If you don't agree that you should be charged, tell that to the judge. But be a man and stand up to your charges."

"Yeah, sonny", said the neighbor. "You tell him, missy."

"Ramon, can you get Declan's keys so that we can lock up the house?"

Declan looked at me. "I thought you were a hooker that my friends sent for me to enjoy."

I stared at him. "Dressed like this?"

"You look hot. You could do me any day."

Good grief. I shook my head and thought about how it was good that I had been exposed to children other than those that I met as a bounty hunter. Without that normalizing experience, I would have been concerned about the future of society.

Ramon entered the house to check the windows and to make sure the stove was off and Miguel and I walked Declan down to the car. We had just gotten Declan shackled to the floor of the vehicle when two cars drove up and blocked us in. Rebecca hopped out of the first car and her uncles hopped out of the second. "You bitch", she said. "You stole my boyfriend."

"Pardon?" I said as I straightened up to talk to her. I pretended not to recognize her as Miguel stiffened at my side. He carefully stepped in front of me and I shut the door to our car. Declan looked disappointed when he wasn't in the center of the melee anymore.

"You're Rebecca, aren't you?"

"You know who I am. I want you to leave my boyfriend alone."

"I thought you were mad at me about doing the research on you."

"My uncles are angry about you doing the research on the family. I'm mad at you for stealing my boyfriend. I'll kill you first. Then I'm planning on killing Terry Gilman. She's a friend of my boyfriend and she's always wanted him."

"My boyfriend has never gone out with you."

"Yes, he has."

"I think you are talking about my ex-boyfriend, and your current boyfriend. I'm not seeing Joe. You can have him."

"I know that he was seeing you on the weekend."

"He had dinner with me and my boyfriend, yes."

"Is this her?" said Luigi.

"Yes", said Rebecca. She pulled out her gun and pointed it at me, and Miguel pulled out his gun and pointed it at her. She moved to the side and Miguel moved with her to keep himself between the two of us, and as we moved to the side Luigi swung around behind us and grabbed me. He shoved a gun into my ribs and yanked me back, and as I went with him my only thought was that being shot wouldn't be good for the baby.

Another reason that I hoped I wasn't pregnant. In the past, I had been periodically shot – and there was nothing that I could do about it. It was part of my crazy life, but it was my life and I liked it.

Rebecca started cackling and Miguel sensed that I was no longer behind him. He twisted slightly so that he could see what was going on. Declan was laughing and Ramon came out of the house, his eyes wide as he looked at the scenario in front of him. He took out his phone and frantically typed in a message.

I reached down and activated the panic button on my watch, and I hoped that Ranger would get the message that I was in trouble, either from the control room or from Ramon himself. I wondered how often Ranger could be expected to save me, and hoped that the distress call wouldn't affect his client meeting. I lifted my wrist to look at my watch. It was nine thirty, and I hoped that his client meeting would be over.

"Are we keeping you from something, sweetheart?" said Rebecca.

"No. I was just judging how much time you have left before you are punished for what you are doing."

The neighbor lifted his phone and started to film the discussion.

"Who's going to punish us? Joe?" said Rebecca. "He loves me. He won't arrest me, and that's all assuming that he puts your disappearance together with me in the first place."

"He read the research", I said.

"Did he believe it?" She paused for a moment as I tried to figure out the best way to answer that question. She smiled. "Of course he didn't. If he believed it, he would have arrested me. I didn't do it."

"You and your uncles didn't kill those eight people?"

"Eight!" said Rebecca. "There were only seven. And it was their choice to die. They could have just moved out of the area."

"So you are new members of the Mob and are moving into the area? You are killing people so that there is a space for you within the organization?"

Rebecca went to say something, and Lorenzo looked at her. "Becky, hush."

"What do I care?" said Rebecca. "We'll kill everyone, and there won't be any witnesses."

I ignored how Declan had started to cry in the car. "How are you disposing of the bodies?" I said. "Are you putting them in the lye vat at the pulp and paper plant or the bagel plant?"

"I wouldn't put it in the lye used in the bagel plant", said Luigi. "That's gross."

I breathed a sigh of relief. A bagel was one of my favorite breakfast foods. I would have to tell Ella. She hadn't served bagels in the break room since I had explained my recent aversion to them.

"Yeah, they'd shut down the plant and our bagels would have to be recalled. The paper plant is a much better option", said Lorenzo. "The paper is bleached, so it doesn't matter if blood and guts get in the pulp."

"Besides", said Luigi, "the blood and guts are well diluted by the time the sodium hydroxide is used in the paper process. There's just a bit of scum left over in the tank, but that's okay. Again, it's not like we have food inspectors coming to inspect the plant, and no health and safety inspector has ever picked up on the scum in the tank."


	22. Chapter 22

"So you killed all seven of the mob members? Why would you do that?"

"You got it right the first time, sweetheart", said Rebecca. "We're moving into town and taking over the mob. We have a lucrative drug distribution program through our recycling services, and we're thinking of branching out and selling guns and ammunition."

"You can already buy guns."

"Not these guns."

"Rebecca, baby", said Lorenzo, "hush."

"Who will lead the new version of the mob?" I asked. I looked around me and frantically thought. I needed to be able to get everyone out of the area safely, and I was barely paying attention to what the three mobsters were saying. I didn't really care who would be leading the mob. I just wanted to keep them talking long enough for Rangeman to save us.

Ramon put his phone away and pulled out his gun. He walked down to join us at the side of the road and, as he approached, Lorenzo pulled out his gun.

"My daddy is going to be the new leader", said Rebecca. "We're going to take over the town."

"Everybody, there are far too many guns out. This is ridiculous", I said.

Rebecca pointed her gun at the car and shot out the tire. I could hear Declan give another sob of terror.

Lorenzo pointed his gun at Ramon, Rebecca pointed her gun at Miguel, and Luigi kept his gun buried in my ribs. Miguel and Ramon both had their guns pointed at Rebecca. The neighbor was still filming, and I wondered what was happening in the Rangeman control room.

Luigi started pulling me back to their car, and Ramon redirected his gun to their car and shot out the tire. I jumped, and so did Luigi.

"You bastard!" said Rebecca. "That was my Caddy!" She swung her gun around and fired blindly.

The neighbor stopped filming and ran inside his house, but once he felt like he was in safety he started filming again.

Luigi pulled me with him as he went to his car. "Becky!" he said. "Stop shooting!"

"I so want to kill her", said Rebecca. She seemed to be getting more and more unhinged as the meeting went on, and I wondered how she'd been able to hide that side of her from Morelli. He was normally a good judge of character, but he had certainly missed with her.

"You can kill her when we get to the paper plant", said Luigi. "It's too hard to carry a dead body, and it would be too noticeable at this time of the day. Besides, I don't really want a dead body in my car. The last dead body in my car bled all over, and it was a bitch to get the leather clean. Get in the car."

Ramon took a step towards me, and Miguel faced me, and the two of them tried to follow me. Lorenzo shot his gun at their feet, and they both stopped moving. I shook my head slightly at them, and they looked worriedly at me. "Ranger's going to kill us", said Ramon.

I tried to smile reassuringly at them, but it was hard since I was shaking so badly. "So you're taking me to the paper plant?" I said. I hoped that Miguel and Ramon understood that the paper plant was where I was going. I had a millisecond daydream about going to the paper plant and being greeted by a swarm of police and the Rangeman team.

"Sure am, sweetheart", said Rebecca.

We reached the car and Luigi shoved me in the backseat. They didn't take the time to restrain my hands, and that was their first mistake. As Rebecca climbed in after me and busied herself by putting on her seatbelt, I put my hand on my stun gun and charged it up before any of the car occupants knew what I was doing, and as Luigi and Lorenzo got into the car and Luigi put the key in the ignition, I whipped the stun gun out of my utility belt and tagged Luigi on the back of the neck. Luigi slumped over the steering wheel, Rebecca started to scream, and Lorenzo lifted his gun.

I didn't stick around to see if Lorenzo was aiming at me. I opened the door and ran as fast as I could. I rounded the trunk of their car and dove behind ours. Lorenzo got out of the car and shot at me. That was their second mistake. Ramon and Miguel positioned themselves, one on each side of me, and returned fire, and I could hear Lorenzo get hit. Declan was still sobbing, which I thought was a good thing. It meant that he was still alive. I opened the door to the car and crept into the backseat, put my finger over my lips and undid his shackles. I eased out of the car again and pulled him with me to safety.

Two cars came flying up, and four older men that I didn't know but would assume were other mobsters, hopped out. They pulled their weapons and started shooting, and I was very glad that I had escaped Luigi's car. Lorenzo and Rebecca returned fire. Lorenzo had blood dripping down his arm and he was shaking from reaction, but he was valiantly trying to take the newcomers down. Drool leaked out of Luigi's mouth, and I could see his fingers starting to twitch. One of the newcomers hit Rebecca and she screamed. Lorenzo was hit milliseconds later, and as he slumped over himself and fell on the ground, Luigi came to and looked around him in confusion.

"Stop shooting!" I said. I stood up and Ramon and Miguel both took a hand and tried to pull me down to safety.

The newcomers stopped shooting and looked at me. "Did Terry send you?" I asked as I walked over to Luigi and pulled him to a standing position. I cuffed him behind his back while he was still punch drunk from being stunned, and they looked at me in surprise. "You sent a message by shooting Rebecca and killing Lorenzo. Let Luigi tell your message from jail. It's another threat, but is one that you can't be charged for."

"How did you know that Terry sent us?" said one of the newcomers. I shook my head. I knew Terry would cause problems. "We've been following these three for the last few days. This is the first time we've had a chance to capture them."

"Is there another team on Robert Bianchi?" I asked.

One of the newcomers nodded. "We have another two enforcers who are following Robert. Between all of us, we will eradicate these interlopers. People should know that they can't fuck around with us."

"I'm sure that, after today, anyone considering making a move will think twice."

I heard police sirens approaching, and the newcomers all jumped into their car and sped away. As they left, I took out my gun and shot out one of their tires. The car jerked from the impact and drove into another car, stopped abruptly and their airbags deployed. By the time they were able to fight free from their airbags, the police had arrived and were surrounding the two cars.

Ramon and Miguel ran over to me and took custody of Luigi as I let him go and checked Rebecca. She was sobbing and her face was white and she had been hit, but as I checked her wound I realized that she had been hit in her shoulder. It wasn't a life-threatening gunshot wound. I thought Morelli would be glad about that. Even though he felt disillusioned and upset about Rebecca's mob association, he had liked her and wouldn't want to have thought of her being killed. Of course, I wasn't sure how much better it was for her to be charged with attempted murder, but at least she wasn't dead.

I put pressure on her wound, and she screamed and clawed at me. I stripped off my jacket and pressed it against the wound. I could feel the warm stickiness of her blood on my hands and tried to ignore the way her hand was clawing at my face. She was screaming and swearing, and she told me that she would kill me as soon as she was free from the police.

The officers swarmed the area, and Declan crouched in a ball beside the car and shook with fear. He started to sneak away, and I called out to Miguel that we had an escapee. Miguel left Luigi in Ramon's care and ran after Declan. He tackled the kid, and Declan screamed. As Miguel hauled him to his feet, he shook his head.

The paramedics showed up seconds later. They jumped out of their ambulance, grabbed a stretcher and their first aid pack, and ran over to our car. One person pronounced Lorenzo to be dead while the other examined Rebecca. I was pushed aside to give the paramedic room to do her job.

I looked up. It appeared that none of the newcomers were seriously injured. The police were putting them in the backs of the cruisers. Miguel pulled me free from the confusion as Ranger drove up and parked, and sprinted up to the scene. He paled when he saw the blood on me. "Not mine", I said. He looked quickly up at Ramon and Miguel. "Not theirs, either", I said.

Ranger breathed a sigh of relief, and then turned to me. "Talk", he said, all boss rather than boyfriend at the moment. He took off his coat and wrapped it around my shoulders. I started to shake in reaction, and he put his arm over my shoulder and walked with me off to the side of the chaos. Ramon and Miguel stayed behind to guard Declan.

I told him about doing the retrieval and that it went smoothly. I told him about Rebecca finding us and threatening us, and I told him about them putting me into their car. Ranger turned completely still, and his body turned so tense I wasn't sure that he wouldn't break with the slightest word or gesture.

I told him about stunning Luigi, and he smiled. I told him about running away and Miguel and Ramon protecting me. I told him that one of them had shot Lorenzo. He smiled at that as well.

Then I told him about the newcomers. "They were from Vito's crew", I said. "They were determined that they would kill all three of them. It was a planned execution."

"But Luigi is still unhurt and Rebecca is still alive."

"That's because I told them to stop shooting and I captured Luigi. I thought Morelli would prefer for them to be caught still living rather than take the chance that an all-out turf war starts. Rebecca was hit and wasn't going anywhere. Besides, Ramon and Miguel were watching her."

"So let me get this straight. You told them to stop shooting and waded into the situation to capture Luigi?"

"It may not have been the smartest idea at the time."

"Babe."

Morelli ran up through the muddle and gave me a hug and a kiss.

"Rebecca is just being prepared for transfer to the hospital", I said.

"I'll see her in a minute. I just wanted to make sure that you're okay first." He caught sight of the blood and paled.

"Not mine", I said. As Morelli reached into his pocket for a tissue for me, I went through my whole story again. I took the tissue and cleaned off my hands.

"Why did you have to wade into a gunfight to save someone who had been intending to kill you?" said Morelli. His face was going red and steam was coming out his ears.

"I told them to stop shooting before I waded in", I said.

"Why doesn't that make me feel better, cupcake?" He shook his head as he took a deep breath. "I'm trying not to yell. Is it working?"

I smiled and tiptoed up to kiss him on his cheek. "Thanks, Joe. If you want an eyewitness account of what went on, the neighbor was filming it on his phone. I don't know how much he got, but I think he at least got some of it." I pointed out the neighbor to him, and Morelli nodded his appreciation. The neighbor was still watching the scene avidly.

More Rangeman staff arrived to add to the confusion, and Ranger guided me to them, his arm still over my shoulder. "Do you need us for anything?" said Ranger to Morelli.

"Not right now, but I will need to ask more questions in the future. Will you be around the Rangeman building?" he said.

"Yes", said Ranger.

I looked at him with a squinty eye. "Who said I wanted to go back to the office right now? I have a skip to take in."

Morelli smiled. "I recognize that look in her eye. Good luck, Ranger. You'll need all the luck that you can get." He clapped Ranger on his back and walked away.

Ranger looked at me, still all-boss and still serious. "Two Rangeman teams are here. One will take your skip into the precinct, pick up your body receipt and take it in to Connie to collect your check, and the other will take Ramon and Miguel back to the office for the day. We'll get another team to do your captures this afternoon and, like my usual practice, Ramon and Miguel will get the rest of the day off. They need the time to decompress after being in a firefight."

"I can take my skip in." I was being stubborn and I knew it, but it was like I couldn't help myself. The terror of thinking I might be pregnant, the terror of thinking I might be killed, all came crashing over me again and I struggled for control as a wave of anger washed over me.

"Babe, you just shaved years off my life. Ramon texted the control room. I was just leaving the pharmacy after getting the test kits when I got the call. I didn't know if I would find you alive or dead. Come back to Rangeman and let me settle."

I took a deep breath. Put like that, I realized that I had to go back to Rangeman for Ranger's sake. And I also realized that I wanted to. I was still shaking, still stunned by the events of the morning. I hadn't yet settled myself, and I didn't really want to take my skip in. I was just looking for an argument to help me get rid of the terror and upset that I had just lived through, and finding release that way wasn't fair to Ranger.

When we got to Ramon and Miguel, Ranger explained what was happening to them. Ramon and Miguel looked calm, but they both looked relieved to hear that they had the rest of the day off. "Talk about what happened to your other teammates as much as you can", said Ranger, "It will help you become more comfortable with the events of the day."

"We will", said Ramon.

"Miguel, please come to Stephanie's office tomorrow. I signed on that new client today, and Steph has about five hundred employees to research for them and another eighty employees for our previous company that she was working on. It will require two people working on the files for the next couple of weeks."

Miguel groaned. "This day looked so promising when I got up", he said. He paused. "I think I'd rather be in a firefight."

Ranger laughed. "Just be glad you are no longer our lead researcher."

"With the quantity of work in front of me, I wish I wasn't your lead researcher either", I said.

Ranger laughed as Miguel looked worried. "Don't quit, Steph", said Miguel. "I can't do research again. I'm too happy on patrol."

I smiled and patted his arm. "Don't worry, Miguel. I'm not planning on leaving."

Miguel breathed a sigh of relief.

Ranger snugged me into his side and said goodbye to the rest of his team. "We'll be at Rangeman if you need us", he said. As he passed the Rangeman team putting Declan into the back of a fleet car, he smiled. "Nice pajamas", he said. Declan flushed.

He walked with me over to his car, settled me in the passenger seat, and shut the door gently. He rounded the hood and slid into the driver's seat. There was a silence in the car as we left the scene, and as classical music played softly in the background, I had the brainstorm of what to get him for Christmas – a set of season's tickets to the Capital Philharmonic.

"I bought three test kits", he said. "I wasn't sure which brand would be the most accurate."

"Thanks for doing that", I said. My face paled as I thought about the possibility of being pregnant again.

"You realize that, if you are pregnant, my preference would be for you not to go out capturing skips any longer?"

"I know. It's one of the many reasons that I hope that I'm not pregnant."

"I already wasn't happy about you going out today, just with the thought that you potentially were pregnant. And when I got the call that you were in trouble? I couldn't cope if something happened to you. It would be worse if you were pregnant."

"I know."

"You have to be careful, babe. Walking into the middle of a shoot-out is putting your life into danger unnecessarily."

"I know. I wasn't thinking."

"It is hard to think when you are in the middle of a situation. It is easier to see what should have happened when the dust has all settled."

"That's true. Now that I've had a chance to think about it, I realize what a foolhardy thing it was to do. It made sense at the time, however."

"I understand."

"Ranger?"

"Yes?"

"Now that we have the potential of having a baby in front of us and you've had a chance to think about it, what do you want the test to say?"

Ranger paused and thought about that. "I don't know the answer to that", he said.

I got a call from Connie, and although I wanted to talk about it more with Ranger, I thought I had better answer the call. She had probably been listening to the police scanner again and, if I didn't answer the call, Connie would just worry. "Hey", I said.

"Hey. Harry came into the office today."

"He did? Where was he?"

"He had gone away for a few days with his mistress. He said that he is back now. Vinnie is ecstatic."

"I can imagine. Thanks for telling me. Can you please let Morelli know?"

"Will do. Vinnie says that you need to catch up on your captures. We have a number of court dates coming soon, and it is unlikely that they will all show."

"Rangeman is doing my skip chasing for the next month or so. When you write checks, thirty percent will go to Rangeman, ten percent to Lula and the rest to me."

"Only thirty percent to Rangeman?"

"The reason I'm not going out myself is because I'm too busy at Rangeman. Ranger says that, because I am doing them a favor, he will only accept thirty percent of the capture fee." Ranger smiled, pleased to be getting his own way, and I wrinkled my nose and shook my head at him.

"Okay. So how are things going?"

"Good. I'm in the middle of something right now. Can I call you back later?"

"Sure thing."

"Thanks for telling me about Harry."

"No problem. Talk to you later."

I hung up the phone as we turned into the Rangeman parking garage. "Sorry about that", I said to Ranger. "I want to continue the conversation about a potential pregnancy with you, but let's wait until we are up at our apartment."

Ranger smiled a half-smile. "Do you realize that is the first time you have called our apartment 'ours'?"

I paused and thought. I had always thought of Ranger's apartment as Ranger's apartment, but he was right. I was now thinking of it as our apartment, and I didn't know when the shift had happened.

"Is that a problem?" I said.

Ranger smiled his half-smile again. "Are you kidding? It's fantastic. It's how I think of our apartment as well."

I relaxed again.

We got out of the car and Ranger grabbed the bag from the pharmacy. We walked over to the elevators and took it to the seventh floor. He handed the bag to me as he unlocked the door to the apartment, and we walked in. The place smelled lemony, and I knew that Ella had already cleaned the apartment for the day.

Ranger walked through to the kitchen and put on the kettle. "In answer to your question, I don't know how I feel. I have never wanted another child, and logically I don't think it is a good idea for me to have another child, but on the other hand I would be happy if you were pregnant. When I had Julie, I knew that things with Rachel wouldn't work out, but I wanted to do right for our child. And although I am a father and I try to do all the right things, I'm not a dad. With my lifestyle that is a good thing. I still am scared for Julie's sake every time I think about her being kidnapped like she was a couple of years ago.

"Unlike with Rachel, I can see still being with you when I am old and gray. You literally are the other half to my soul and you have been since I first met you. Logically, I know not having children is the best thing for us. But speaking from my heart? I'd like to see you grow fat with my babies. While circumstances have meant that I'm not really a dad to Julie, I wouldn't mind being a dad to your babies. How do you feel about the possibility of having kids?"

"I never wanted them with Dickie but I felt that was the only way that my life could go. When I broke up with Dickie, for the first time ever I was given the opportunity to think about what I wanted. It was a freeing feeling, not being locked into the life my mother had. It was a good life for her, but I don't think it would be a good life for me. I never wanted them with Morelli because I knew that he'd prefer me to be barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen, and I didn't want to give up my independence. I know you wouldn't force me to give up my life. To be honest, I don't really like kids. I don't want to have kids for the sake of having children and I don't get the warm fuzzies when I think about babies." I paused. "Not like I do about Rex." Ranger smiled. "However, I like Angie and Mary Alice. I like Val's little ones. They are good kids. I like them better as they get older, but I love them because they are Val's and I like spending time with them. I'm sure that I would love our kids as well.

"I'm still getting used to the concept that we might be pregnant, and my thoughts may change on this, but you are the first person that I have met who is making me reconsider the thought that I don't want kids."

"That's basically how I feel as well."

I sighed. "It's time, isn't it?"

Ranger's lips quirked up in support, and I took a deep breath, went over to the kitchen sink, put the drug store bad down on the counter, and washed the blood completely off my hands. Then I opened the first box of test sticks and read the directions. I walked over to the powder room and stepped inside. I shut the door and I could hear Ranger lean against the wall as he waited. I peed on the stick and looked at my watch. I counted out the time, and then looked at the stick. "Ranger?" I said.

~ The End ~

_Thanks for reading my story. I hope you enjoyed Toxic 30. Obit 31 is the next in the series. If you liked Toxic 30, watch for it!_


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